But we are going to begin with
that shareholder revolt against
Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk,
and how the Gigafactory in South
Buffalo factors into the complaints.
To On Your Side obtained a letter written
by 17 high-powered Tesla investors.
Collectively, they own 1 1/2 billion
dollars worth of the company stock,
and they're asking Tesla's
board to essentially exercise
more oversight of Elon Musk.
Who some believe is more focused on
other ventures like Twitter and SpaceX
then he is on the electric car company.
The letter also references alleged union
busting at the plant in South Buffalo.
We reported with our partners that
investigated post how Tesla fired 30
local employees a couple of months ago,
and those workers say they're lost their
jobs because they were trying to unionize.
So joining us live now is Ivan Frishberg,
chief Sustainability Officer
for Amalgamated Bank,
which signed the letter.
And also J Del Shoemaker with
Investigative Post who has been reporting
on issues at the Tesla factory.
We appreciate both of you coming
on here with us tonight.
And Ivan,
I wonder if we can start with
you here and explaining to us why
your bank signed this letter and
what your response would be to Mr.
Musk who I imagine would say
look at the big company,
isolated issues are going to always
happen in a situation like that.
And he would say Tesla's the most recognized
electric car company in the world.
Things are going pretty good.
Yeah. And thank you for having me.
Amalgamated Bank signed on to the
letter and was was part of the
conversation with other investors
because of a number of concerns about
governance really within Tesla.
And and I will say right out front,
I think everybody here supports US
manufacturing of EV's of clean energy of
of all the things that are both great for
business and and good for America, but.
But very clearly Pesla has a a governance
problem and I think it's reflected in a
number of issues within its workforce.
But it's also reflected in the fact
that you have a CEO who's who's
running three really big companies
all at the same time and has a pretty
tight and Clubby's Board of directors
that he's he's surrounding him.
Dale, let me ask you specifically
about the part of the letter
here that references Buffalo and
if if we can move forward here,
we'll show our viewers the
letter here and on page two.
It lists allegations of a toxic
culture at different Tesla factories.
One of the bullet points there,
we highlighted it.
It says, quote a complaint with the
National Labor Relations Board accusing
Tesla of retaliatory termination
of union organizing employees.
In its Buffalo, NY plant,
it goes on to say that Tesla's believed
to use nondisclosure agreements
to try to hide some of the issues
that have been raised by employees.
So Dale, based on your reporting,
your thoughts on this letter
and and sort of Elon Musk being
called out over all this,
Yeah. So what I can tell
you is basically this.
Shortly before Valentine's Day,
a group of workers at the Tesla
factory decided to unionize.
They began a union organizing campaign.
They went public with it, like I said,
just before Valentine's Day and
just a couple of days later,
dozens of those employees
from the Autopilot division,
and this is the group of employees
that is working to help program this,
the driverless cars that
Tesla talks about a lot.
Dozens of those people were fired,
in some estimates more than 40 and.
The company says that those
employees were fired not in
retaliation for joining the union,
but because they failed performance reviews.
But in talking with employees
and former employees there,
you know,
they kind of called BS on that and
said that there's really no possible
way that that many employees did that
poorly on their performance reviews.
And they do allege that this is in
fact retaliation for unionizing.
So Ivan, as some of the reporting
nationally has been looking at this
letter that you all put out today,
it is noted that there are strong ties
to organize labor with a lot of the
groups involved in including your bank.
What would you say to that and what
is the ultimate goal of this letter?
I mean what would if if if the, you know,
board were here in front of you right now,
what would you say needs
to change within Tesla?
Yeah, and and.
First of all be right up front.
We we are a bank that was founded here
in New York 100 years ago by a labor union.
It's still a significant part of the
the company and has been for 100 years.
We just celebrated our 100th
anniversary last Friday and but part
of our our business is we are. Yeah.
Investment managers for pension
funds that have a very long view,
they have to have very broad exposure
into the market and that inevitably means
companies like Tesla being in there.
And it's very clear that there's a
a a culture of concealment within
the the company.
I think that the issues that
you've talked about in Buffalo,
we've seen in other places like
California where employees have have.
Ignored the mandatory arbitration
provisions and contracts and had to
go to court to defend themselves and
and seek damages from the company.
They there have been issues with the
regulators in the State of California
and between these mandatory arbitration
agreements and the the the nondisclosure
provisions you were just referencing.
That's something that doesn't
help a company deal well with
its employees and and and really
that's that's a governance problem,
it's a social problem.
And what I would say to the Board
of Directors is exactly what
we said in the letter.
We want to be able to talk to them
about these issues and how they're
going to really take control of the
company and start to enact some of
the sort of best governance practices
that we see in companies all over,
all over the world.
Evan Frishberg, Chief Sustainability
Officer with Amalgamata Bank and
Investigative Post J Dale Shoemaker.
Thanks to both of you for
starting off our show tonight.
We appreciate your time. Thanks.