Union organizers at the Tesla's Gigafactory Factory in Buffalo, New York, claim that the company laid off dozens of workers on Wednesday, Feb. 15. This allegedly happened only one day after the news about employees starting a union campaign.
Union Drive
Workers at Tesla's Gigafactory in New York, where over a thousand people are employed to annotate data for the company's Autopilot and autonomous driving initiatives, have declared their intention to form a union.
According to previous reports, including Electrek's, the initiative was launched by data labelers who want higher compensation, job security, and less monitoring at the workplace. Workers United, well-known for having unionized employees at hundreds of Starbucks outlets, is supporting the drive.
It is planned that the 1,000 manufacturing employees at Gigafactory New York in Buffalo will be included in the unionization push.
Workers Union filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that Tesla had dismissed hundreds of workers at the facility after the unionization drive was launched on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Among those let go were individuals who were involved in the unionization process.
In a report by Bloomberg, the union requested that the NLRB file an injunction with the federal court to avoid irreversible damage to employee rights due to Tesla's illegal actions.
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Negative Sentiments
Jaz Brisack, an activist with Workers United who is helping with the Tesla union push at Giga New York, commented regarding the sudden termination.
"This is a form of collective retaliation against the group of workers that started this organizing effort. The terminations are designed to terrify everyone about potential consequences of them organizing, as well as to attempt to cull the herd."
As one of the organizers and a Tesla employee let go on Wednesday, Arian Berek said that the decision caught them completely off guard.
"I got COVID and was out of the office, then I had to take a bereavement leave. I returned to work, was told I was exceeding expectations and then Wednesday came along."
The union organizers at Gigafactory New York insist they contribute to the cause while they believe the firings to be unjustified.
Alleged Illegal Termination
Getting into an issue with the NLRB over the dismissal of employees in connection with union efforts is not the first time this has happened to Tesla.
In March 2021, when CEO Elon Musk tweeted that unionized workers would lose their stock options as part of their compensation package, the NLRB determined that Tesla had broken labor rules by terminating an employee for what the company alleged was union support.
