elon musk challenged the united auto workers to organize his company's fremont california
assembly facility president biden praised ford and gm in his state of the union address
prompting his remarks for years musk has been a vociferous critic of the uaw
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elon musk a prominent opponent of unions and the united auto workers attempts to organize
his workers has invited the union to hold an organizing ballot at tesla
musk claimed on twitter that tesla is only able to hire and retain workers in the present extremely
tight labor market by paying and treating them well and that he is unconcerned about the firm
holding a union ballot our real challenge is bay area has negative unemployment so if we don't
treat and compensate our awesome people well they have many other offers and will just leave i'd
like hereby to invite uaw to hold a union vote at their convenience tesla will do nothing to
stop them in a tweet he stated musk was replying to a twitter chain that began with president joe
biden congratulating two unionized automakers gm and ford for their efforts in electric vehicle
manufacturing biden possibly the most pro-union president in history has allowed the ev efforts of
unionized automakers such as gm ford and stilantes while ignoring tesla which has invested far more
in ev development and manufactured far more of those vehicles in the united states to date
elon musk was displeased that tesla was not mentioned in joe biden's inaugural state of
the union address the president applauded ford and general motors for investing billions of dollars
in electric vehicle development in his speech but he made no mention of tesla the world's leading ev
manufacturer ford is investing 11 billion dollars to develop electric vehicles around the country
creating 11 000 jobs biden added gm is investing seven billion dollars to produce electric vehicles
resulting in the creation of four thousand jobs in michigan tesla ceo elon musk was irritated by this
when rock icon gene simmons retweeted biden's claim that the president didn't mention tesla
because the company is non-union and headquartered in texas a right-to-work state musk responded by
stating that the company has not shuttered its california facility and is exploring expanding it
after that he proposed that the union took a vote musk later followed up by tweeting that
tesla plant workers received the greatest pay in the business most tesla employees are given stock
options which can be quite lucrative given the stock's recent rise musk has threatened workers
with losing the benefits if they vote for a union a posture that california labor judge said was
illegal because it violated employees ability to freely choose whether or not to organize
employees stock options would not be canceled if they later decided to join a union
tesla employed over 100 000 employees worldwide at the end of last year according to the corporate
filing but the breakdown between its operations in california texas nevada western new york
shanghai and a new facility set to be built outside of berlin was not shown musk's suggestion
to hold a vote elicited no instant response from the uaw it has been attempting to organize the
california factory since it began operations more than a decade ago tesla and musk have been cited
by the united auto workers and the national labor relations board the government agency in charge
of overseeing unionization votes for illegal or improper anti-social activities including
allegations that the company fired employees who supported and promoted the unions when at
least one third of employees at the company or a specific workplace signed cards requesting
to be represented by a union a vote is usually held and unions don't usually file the cards to
request an election until they have a lot more support usually from a huge majority of workers
a firm may agree to reorganize a union without a vote in some cases usually as part of a deal
with a union that already represents its employees at other locations although an
employer can agree to hold a vote without the union filing cards it is unclear if musk has
done so in the situation as suggesting an election on twitter is not a formal file with the nlr bait
employers virtually always persuade workers to vote no on organizing votes claiming that they
would be worse off under union leadership even when employers remain neutral like at the uaw
ballot at the volkswagen plant in chattanooga tennessee eight years ago anti-union outside
groups can sway workers to vote no and destroy the organizing attempt it's also unclear whether
musk is promising to remain neutral if the vote was held and whether such a vote would take place
solely at tesla plans in pro-union california or nevada or whether it would also involve workers at
the recently established factory outside of austin texas according to alexander colvin a professor at
cornell university school of industrial and labor relations organizing a high-profile
corporation like tesla would be one of the us labor movement's greatest successes in decades
colvin stated it would be a critical success it would be right up there with amazon's organization
union membership has decreased to only 10.3 percent of all workers and only six percent of
private sector employees in the united states down from 16.8 in 1983 when the labor department began
recording the data unions must reclaim some of their lost authority through organizing campaigns
however unions have lost high-profile votes recently such as one at the amazon warehouse in
alabama after management was found to have engaged in improper activities during the initial vote
the election is being repeated right now starbucks workers united a small independent union has had
some success organizing individual starbucks businesses winning votes at two locations in
buffalo and one in mesa arizona thus far however starbucks owns 9 000 outlets in the united states
musk linked a youtube video in one of his tweets that he claims helps explain why former uaw
members who work at tesla are not major fans of uaw the video was uploaded on youtube in 2010 by
the world socialist website channel workers at the nu mmi plan which would later become tesla's first
electric vehicle manufacturing are shown in the video complaining that a union member was barred
from filming a uaw meeting at the local union hall musk isn't the only one who has criticized the
uaw as part of a settlement between the uaw and the government following a multi-year corruption
probe that sent 15 people to jail including two former uaw presidents the detroit-based
union is under federal monitoring through a court-appointed monitor several prominent union
leaders were implicated in years of bribery and kickback schemes according to the inquiry
a spokesperson for the united auto workers brian rothenberg declined to comment on musk's comment
but did say that tesla has challenged the nlrb order requiring it to comply with basic
organizing rights with a limited staff the uaw has an organizing office near fremont factory
rothenberg refused to comment on any union organizing attempts at tesla or other electric
vehicle businesses setting a union policy of not commenting on activities until petitions
are submitted a request for comment from tesla was not returned the uaw faces competition from the
booming electric vehicle market which estimated in 2018's study that detroit automakers switching
to electric could cost the union tens of thousands of jobs battery electric vehicles have much fewer
parts than internal combustion engines and many of the parts are manufactured outside of the united
states president biden is encouraging congress to enact legislation to preserve workers rights
even as unions struggle to retain members he's suggested the pro act which would penalize
companies who engage in illegal union opposition wage fraud or misclassification of employees in
his speech on tuesday biden stated when a majority of workers want to organize a union they shouldn't
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