Tesla Faces Labor Board Complaint Alleging Interference With Unionization (arstechnica.com)

According to Ars Technica, a federal labor board on Thursday "filed a complaint against Tesla, alleging that the electric vehicle company had discouraged workers from distributing pro-union information, stopped them from talking about employee safety to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, and in one case, prevented an employee from taking a picture of the Confidentiality Agreement they had to sign." From the report: The Oakland, California-based regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) consolidated the complaints of three former Tesla employees, Michael Sanchez, Jonathan Galescu, and Richard Ortiz, as well as complaints made by UAW. The complaint alleges that on numerous occasions between February 2017 and May 2017, security guards and human resources agents working on behalf of Tesla told employees that they had to leave the Fremont, California, factory premises because they were distributing pro-union leaflets. In addition, one employee says that over the course of two meetings, a Human Resources Business Partner and an Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability Specialist "interrogated the employee about the employee's Union and/or protected, concerted activities," as well as the pro-union activities of other employees. In March, the complaint claims, a supervisor told his employees during a pre-shift meeting that they could not distribute any stickers or pamphlets that hadn't been approved by Tesla first, or they would be fired. In another incident, a Human Resources Business Partner allegedly "attempted to prohibit an employee from discussing safety concerns with other employees and/or with the Union."

Comments

Forthrightedness

[fluffernutter]

All Tesla has to do is demonstrate to their workers that they already are getting working conditions that meet or exceed that of other unionized shops. Once they do so in an honest and forthright fashion, the union problem goes away because why would anyone want it?

Re:Unions are bad

[Uberbah]

Kind of like how we could just do away with the FDA, because drug fiascos like Vioxx are a thing of the past. We can all trust our corporate overlords not to put their own greed above the interests of their own workers and customers...

Re:Unions are bad

[Uberbah]

Unions were necessary and were a force for protecting employees' interests.

Unions act as a counterbalance to corporate greed. Has corporate greed disappeared? Have companies stopped killing their workers to save a few pennies on the dollar in profits? Have they stopped demanding their workers make huge pay and benefit cuts to up quarterly dividends - even as the company is enjoying all-time high profits?

Unions now are primarily political action committees.

Uh huh. And how do you propose they counterbalance the (infinitely more funded) political action committees from big business? You expecting them to unilaterally disarm as the latter engages in shenanigans like getting "small government" Republicans to override city-based minimum wage increases with state laws?

Re:The UAW is like the mafia

[catchblue22]

It is not surprising that in 2015 with a new production line (the Model X) that injury rates were high. However my understanding is that due to the addition of a third shift amongst other things, that the injury rate has dropped to half industry average. In all honesty, this sounds like a professional media push, even your comment. That's the problem with comment boards...no accountability. We subconsciously treat all comments as if they are expressions of honest opinion, but the reality is that many comments on hot button issues where PR companies are involved, are likely expressions of the interests of one organization or another (in this case, the UAW).

My honest opinion, as a person who believes that electrification of the transport system is the only way to begin to get a handle on reducing our dangerous carbon emissions, is that the UAW quite literally wants to bring Tesla's growth to a grinding halt. My argument for this is that they have an institutional self-interest to do so, in large part because Tesla wants to create an unprecedented fully automated manufacturing line, which will reduce membership in the union. In my experience, institutional self-interest is the best predictor of the actions of organizations.