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

Elon Musk is a hypocrite

[Anonymous Coward]

Musk has stated his support for universal basic income, to protect workers who would lose their jobs. It's easy to say that when it comes out of everyone's tax bills. Hiwever, when his workers want to form unions to protect themselves, his company is actively working to prevent them from exercising collective bargaining rights. What a hypocrite.

Re:Elon Musk is a hypocrite

[geoskd]

I've managed to invest around $900,000

Lets assume it has taken you 20 years to accumulate that much. At an average 5% return, that would mean your monthly contribution has been about $6,000 per month. Even if this is pretax, and assuming you are homeless and don't eat, that puts your annual income at $72,000

So your basic solution to low paying non-union jobs is to not have a low paying job. Nicely done! You have solved world poverty. We need to make everyone aware of this breakthrough

Somehow, I think the more likely answer is that you're an asshole libertarian, and can't justify your political beliefs without lying.

Re:Elon Musk is a hypocrite

[Igmuth]

I think your math is off a bit. Even with 0% investment, $900,000/240 months = 3750/month. With 5% returns it's closer to $2250/month. That's still implies an income well above average, but not quite as bad as you list.

Unions are bad

[cyber-vandal]

Without them we could enjoy the same unparalleled working conditions as Bangladeshi factory workers.

Re: Unions are bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I've worked at union and non union auto manufacturers, including with Tesla, and unionizing is the worst option for both employer and employees. When you lose any motivation to work hard, the incentive to not be a lazy piece of shit disappears too.

Re: Unions are bad

[Calydor]

No, that is just you having no professional pride.

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: Unions are bad

[Maxo-Texas]

I don't hate unions.

I think they give employees leverage with businesses.

I also think businesses have had a LOT of laws passed which limits the power of unions today (like industry wide strikes).

That being said... I've *never* known a union person who worked as hard as non-union. And not from fear...

Example

Friend of mine was a non union plumber (yech ! Ptoo!)

He shows up at a job site to install a line which requires a hole in a stud. They tell him, he has to wait until the stud hole driller gets back from lunch. Apparently, no one else can drill a hole in the stud even tho the tools are on a nearby table.

That screams of a lack of professional pride to me.

It's also a big reason non-union folks hate to deal with union people. Because union people stick to their rules when just a *little* bit of give would be much more productive (and so more profitable).

---

In the end, he picked up the drill, drilled the hole, and installed the line. They complained. As this was in texas, absolutely nothing came of it except they were probably angry, surly, and upset for a few days.

Re: Unions are bad

[Maxo-Texas]

Meanwhile all the executives took huge salaries and bled the businesses dry and kept the money for themselves.

They chose terrible car designs and lobbied congress successfully for protection from progress instead of designing better cars.

Did the unions have problems? Sure.

Did the executives also have a HUGE hand in driving the companies to extinction? Sure.

one difference. The union folks are eating empty promises of pensions while the executive class took a large share of their money in cash at the time (and also in some cases had separately funded pensions and gold plated health care plans).

The UAW is like the mafia

[catchblue22]

The UAW is basically acting like a mafia organization now. They do not want Tesla to succeed, because Elon Musk's eventual vision is to drastically reduce human presence on the manufacturing floor through unprecedented production automation. Right now, GM uses robots for frame assembly, but the assembly of the rest of the car is primarily done by humans. Tesla currently occupies the NUMMI plant, formerly a venture of GM and Toyota opened in 1984. It was shut down, in large part because it was unprofitable due the presence of the UAW. The United Autoworkers union is a rent seeking parasitic organization that neither acts in the interests of its workers, nor largely for the companies its workers are employed in (except in this case indirectly in that getting rid of Tesla would be in the interests of GM and Ford).

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.

Re:The UAW is like the mafia

[Anonymous Coward]

The workers were predominately Hispanic and Asian, but the thing about the gangster rap was the disgusting objectification of women. Nothing like being in a so called professional work environment and being forced to hear songs about screwing and slapping "bi***s*" and hoes which are blasting super loud as women are working in the next pitch. And then the super line managers walk out a peon worker for calling another worker a "pu****". The double standards were ludicrous.

I gotta say, I did love eating free cereal in the middle of an assembly line. Elon took good care of us in the free drinks and all you can eat cereal departments. I also enjoyed the trains of investors on plant tours who sometimes pointed to us like we were trained monkeys. The Fremont plant was all about the show.

And yes, the Japs know how to build cars. Japanese plants don't need unions because they are well managed.

Re:The UAW is like the mafia

[catchblue22]

Also, let me tell you their automation is nothing compared the typical Japanese plant. Tesla has some of the lowest levels of automation compared to the typical auto factory. They just discovered how to run a moving assembly line and they struggle with it. They are still learning how to build cars.

Your comment is totally uninformed. When was the last time you visited an auto plant?

Almost every car manufacturer uses automation for frame welding. No one, I repeat, no one, not the Japanese, not the Germans has fully automated the assembly of the interior of the car. For example, inside the dashboard of most cars, wiring is snaked around many different places, and it is typically connected using wiring harnesses. You cannot get a robot to reliably pick the correct wiring harnesses and plug them into one another. There are simply too many variables. Take a look under your Japanese car dashboard, and you will see many wiring harnesses. They cannot be assembled by robots.

As an example of Tesla's innovation, their new car (the Model 3) has a glass roof. If you don't choose that option, a steel cover will be put in place of the glass. The reason they do this is to keep the roof of the car open for clear robotic access during interior assembly. Their next generation of car will be built for full robotic manufacturing. Things like wiring harnesses will be replaced by parts with interior wiring and plugs, so that robots can easily snap parts together.

You are a 2+2=5 troll.

Re:The UAW is like the mafia

[Rei]

There's shades of that in Tesla's response (which of course Slashdot, eternally lacking any sort of attempt to be balanced, did not post):

"As we approach Labor Day weekend, there’s a certain irony in just how far the UAW has strayed from the original mission of the American labor movement, which once advocated so nobly for the rights of workers and is the reason we recognize this important holiday.

Faced with declining membership, an overwhelming loss at a Nissan plant earlier this month, corruption charges that were recently leveled against union leaders who misused UAW funds, and failure to gain traction with our employees, it’s no surprise the union is feeling pressured to continue its publicity campaign against Tesla.

For seven years, the UAW has used every tool in its playbook: misleading and outright false communications, unsolicited and unwelcomed visits to the homes of our employees, attempts to discredit Tesla publicly in the media, and now another tactic that has been used in every union campaign since the beginning of time–baseless ULP filings that are meant only to generate headlines. These allegations, which have been filed by the same contingent of union organizers who have been so outspoken with media, are entirely without merit. We will obviously be responding as part of the NLRB process.”

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?

Another mixed bag: consistent thinking

[Uberbah]

I would see the union manager come around in his $1000 suits (a lot at the time). He didn't actually seem to be doing good for the employees, but it looked like he sure was doing good for himself.

Anecdotes and confirmation bias in an anti-union post, how original. But you don't see people questioning the very concept of banking because of Well's Fargo fraudulently signing people up for accounts they didn't ask for.

Anti-Union Dumbfuckery

[Uberbah]

I've worked at union and non union auto manufacturers, including with Tesla, and unionizing is the worst option for both employer and employees. When you lose any motivation to work hard, the incentive to not be a lazy piece of shit disappears too.

This "unions only protect the lazy" bullshit is dependent on the notion that not only are you going to be happy doing your own work, but your work plus Bob's down the hall whenever he feels like slacking off. No human is built that way - unless you're in an abusive Biff Tannen/George McFly situation, in which case George is going to be doing Bill's work even at an anti-union shop. And it's not like all of you Calvinist shitweasels haven't worked with any number of slackers at union-free companies who got away with all kinds of shenanigans because they were the boss's buddy.

Dumb.

Fuck.

Er.

Eee.

Can Union's still be trusted with power?

[seoras]

If you old enough to remember the 1970's in Britain (I was at primary school) you'll remember the mess the UK was un due to Unions flexing muscle.
It was like a 3rd world country. The worst year was the infamous "winter of discontent".
I was off school either because the teachers were striking, the miners were striking (no coal, no heating, freezing school) or the school janitor was striking.
The rubbish (trash) was piling up on the streets as the refuse collectors were striking.
I would sit at home with my parents in the dark with a gas lamp because the power station had gone out on strike.
I have no love for Thatcher, her politics, policies or legacy. This union driven madness was really what brought her to power and she crushed them without mercy.
It was effectively the end of socialist Britain, the cold war had made communism a dirty world and socialism was getting a bad name thanks to the power drunk unions.
The pendulum has swung a bit too far right since then (NHS dismantlement) and, I personally, blame the unions for it.
They abused their power and we all paid for it.
Reading between the lines on this Tesla spat with unions makes me think it's a grab for power.
We're not hearing any stories of awful working conditions. Oppressed, underpaid workers or anything that would make us think 'they need help, they need a union".
I'd like to think there was protection and worker representation in place but I also don't want to see Tesla hindered in their championing of a clean automotive future due to aa union's (unnecessary) interference.

Re:NOT a hypocrite

[geoskd]

Musk wants his workers to have money, not lecherous outsiders.

Be very careful ascribing motivations to others. You should make absolute certain that Musks motives are what you think they are, and that you haven't simply superimposed the motives you want Musk to have.

Everyone wants a hero. They love a good Robinhood story; so much so that they will imagine it even if it doesn't actually exist. That is why Donald Trump is the president of the united states.

Re:Unions are an expression of free speech

[MrKaos]

Unionism is a subset of the right to free assembly and is one of the underlying principles of democracy. This is a spin off of free speech, when enough people feel the same way about some aspect of culture that it needs to be changed, that is how it is changed. That's the point of free speech.

It seems to me that many people are all for free speech until a group gathers to express it, then it becomes easy to marginalize them, as a group. Personally I go by the maxim that someone's free speech ends where mine begins because if you give someone enough rope they'll either hang themselves or you'll find some sort of understanding. If you try really hard you may even find some mutual respect.