A Unionized Tesla Workforce Could Benefit All Parties

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A Unionized Tesla Workforce Could Benefit All Parties

Allowing workers to join the United Auto Workers would benefit not only employees but the company itself.

By
Carolyn Fortuna

Today, all political and all age cohorts hold record or near-record positive views favoring labor over big business. The steady rise in public support for labor and concurrent declining support for big business suggests a transformational shift in employer/employee relations. A unionized Tesla workforce right now could benefit Tesla as it would follow a shift in public opinion in favor of organized labor.

As someone who self-financed my own college education through to a doctorate, I experienced firsthand the vagaries of being a restaurant worker. I remember walking into the kitchen and ducking as a French knife flew across my field of vision. I heard constant tirades and slurs. My co-workers and I stood on our feet, hour after hour, without a break. We were paid below minimum wage during periods when no tipping customers were present. Health insurance or vacation time? Advanced notice of schedule? Sick days? Not for us as restaurant workers.

Post-higher education, I entered the teacher workforce and spent 20 years as a secondary English educator. Supported by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association, I received pay increases based on performance reviews, years served, and education accumulated. Health benefits allowed my family to have security. Length of work days, descriptions of duties, protocols for everything from acceptable work behavior to emergencies — the union collaborated and negotiated with the school district as to what an appropriate workplace should be like.

Being part of a union changed my life. A unionized Tesla workforce is an opportunity that could improve Tesla, give a boost to thousands of staff, and help Tesla’s image and long-term vision.

Infrastructure Bill Draws upon Union Support
The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on August 10 to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Biden’s agenda. The vote, which was 69 to 30, was “uncommonly bipartisan,” according to the New York Times.

The bipartisan endorsement that included a nod to transportation should be instructive to Tesla. Joining US President Biden for the public face of the announcement were executives from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, who made broad and noble statements about their commitments to electric transportation. Electric vehicles, however, are only a merest hint of these companies’ US sales, with 1.5% for GM, 1.3% for Ford, and none yet for Stellantis so far this year.

Tesla, which manufactures only battery electric vehicles, was excluded from the White House photo shoots and conversations. “Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” responded Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a tweet responding to a CleanTechnica article about it.



That exclusion makes me sad.

Tesla has been nothing less than revolutionary as it has opened up the US and world to all-electric transportation. By making electric transportation mainstream, it disrupted a legacy industry and offered a new business model and consumer approach. (Disclaimer: I am a Tesla stockholder.)

The United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agriculture Workers (UAW) union was also at the White House ceremony.

UAW-represented workplaces range from multinational corporations, small manufacturers and state and local governments to colleges and universities, hospitals, and private non-profit organizations. The UAW has more than 400,000 active members in more than 600 local unions and has 1,150 contracts with some 1,600 employers in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The UAW represents workers at GM, Ford, and Stellantis, but has been battling, so far unsuccessfully, to organize Tesla workers at its US plant in Fremont, California.

Indeed, right now Tesla is the only large US automaker without a unionized workforce. UAW spokesperson Brian Rothenberg said he was not aware that Tesla was not invited to the event.

Court Rulings on Tesla Unionization Controversies
In 2017, Tesla workers at its auto plant contacted the UAW to seek assistance to unionize. “We have a long history of engaging directly with our employees on the issues that matter to them, and we will continue to do so because it’s the right thing to do,” a Tesla spokesperson countered.

Administrative judge Amita Tracy pointed to 12 company actions in 2019 that violated US labor laws. That included letting security guards harass workers who were passing out union pamphlets in the parking lot, banning employees from wearing pro-union T-shirts and buttons, repeatedly interrogating union organizers, and eventually firing one of them.

Later, the National Labor Relations Board based their decision on Tracy’s ruling from 2019 and ordered Tesla to make Tesla’s chief executive delete a tweet that was seen as threatening to labor organizers who were discussing how to unionize within the company. The federal board also ordered Tesla to reinstate a terminated employee, Richard Ortiz, who was a union advocate. The order added that Elon Musk had illegally threatened workers with the loss of stock options if they unionized.

The Guardian reports that complaints from workers over being fired for engaging in efforts to unionize at Tesla have become common. “I was a union supporter. I wore a union shirt almost every day to work, and my supervisor at the time asked me why I wore it,” said Jim Owen, who left the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, in March 2018 due to concerns for his safety after a robot almost severely injured him while working on car hoods. “He told me upper management wouldn’t appreciate me wearing it.”

Unionization Would Be Good for Tesla & Its Workers
President Biden has taken a big step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions with an executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric, a move made with vocal backing from the prominent US automakers. “The biggest thing that’s happening here is there’s a realization, on the part of both labor and business now, that this is the future. We can’t sit by,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

Clearly, Tesla is not a company content to “sit by” — it continually files patentsto improve the quality of Tesla manufacturing. But, as a longtime Fremont autoworker wrote in Fortune, “We will only have a truly sustainable future if workers have a seat at the table throughout the transition from oil, gas, and internal combustion engines to batteries, charging stations, and zero-emission vehicles.”

Workers want to unionize so that they can have input into wages, hours, working conditions, and the many other issues that arise in the relationship between a worker and employer. Unions help set the standards for education, skill levels, wages, working conditions, and quality of life for workers. While not always the case, union-negotiated wages and benefits are generally superior to what non-union workers receive.

In Germany right now, labor unions are pressuring Tesla. It’s likely there will be a public relations campaign and protests to exert political and social pressure on Tesla to become what is considered a good corporate citizen. There could be organized rolling strikes or guerilla actions like slowing down work at a Tesla supplier or attempts to influence Tesla’s leadership from within.

The Biden administration has promised to strengthen union rights, incentivize unionization, and encourage collective bargaining. Research exposes how public feeling today toward labor is more positive, and public feeling toward big business more negative, than at any time in 5 decades. Workers increasingly want to unionize: over half of US workers say they would vote to unionize at their place of employment, while only 11% of US employees currently belong to one.

The bottom line is that, if Tesla was to become a union shop, both sides would benefit. With a stable workforce comes predictable labor costs. Tesla would be viewed publicly as an employer that makes a workforce safer, more productive, and more effective through training, better equipment, and making better use of their knowledge. The UAW, in turn, can be transparent in recognizing the needs of Tesla to be responsive to customers and competitive in its markets. It has already stated recently that the auto industry is now investing billions in the growth of electric vehicles, which could result in major changes in where and how vehicles are produced.

A recent survey from Consumer Reports found a third of US car buyers are considering an electric car the next time they purchase a new car. Having a Tesla company story that involves union workers and living wages would be a competitive advantage commercially, as those soon-to-be EV drivers would be more likely to choose a Tesla if their new car had been manufactured at a union facility.


SOURCE: CleanTechnica
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TruckElectric

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There could be organized rolling strikes or guerilla actions like slowing down work at a Tesla supplier or attempts to influence Tesla’s leadership from within.
Dirty pool......it's what unions do. But hey, it's ok because it's for "the workers", right?
 

Crissa

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The Union that sued Tesla 'for threatening loss of stock options' actively discourages stock options as compensation. The labor board doesn't seem to consider talking about actual facts to be context.

Which is the problem with how we have Unions today. They exclude too many workers, and some of their contract requirements probably shouldn't be allowed.

We need more Unions, not less - just like we need healthcare not tied to your work, we need HR not tied to your employer.

But we also need Unions that don't protect rulebreakers, don't interfere or put quotas on certifications and training, don't require overtime, and don't exclude newer workers in favor of older ones.

-Crissa
 

BillyGee

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If you already provide everything unions demand as a starting point then you've effectively made them obsolete.

Tesla Cybertruck A Unionized Tesla Workforce Could Benefit All Parties elon-musk-union-tweet
 


Crissa

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There are functions a Union provides that aren't tied to compensation, such as representation and being invested in labor protections rather than protecting the company, and political solidarity as well.

Which is why they're important. They're an opposing force to employers' demands and illegality. Working together can counterbalance loads of money and FUD.

-Crissa
 

jerhenderson

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There are functions a Union provides that aren't tied to compensation, such as representation and being invested in labor protections rather than protecting the company, and political solidarity as well.

Which is why they're important. They're an opposing force to employers' demands and illegality. Working together can counterbalance loads of money and FUD.

-Crissa
they can also be a roadblock to removing bad employees.
 

Sirfun

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I don't see unions benefiting company, employee, customer or investor.
Actually, there has to be some benefits for companies, otherwise why would companies sign up to be part of a union. I'm a retired Sheet Metal Worker, and there were lots of times shops would join our union. One of the main benefits of joining our union would be having access to well-trained workers. In our union, it took 4 1/2 years of training on the job and night school to be a journeyman. In construction, it can be feast or famine for companies as far as how much work they have and how many well-trained employees they need. With being part of a union, a company can bid on jobs that they don't currently have the workforce for, knowing that the union will have trained people to fill those jobs. Also, if your company is bidding on work outside the area you are in, the union will supply the workers needed. It's not all a rosy picture as I have drawn, but there are benefits for a company.

I'm not against non-union, I actually know some people that have done very well for themselves working non-union. One of the benefits they had, is that once they have shown what a beneficial employee you are for that company they really don't want to lose you, they are more loyal to their best workers. Whereas, if you are in a union of well-trained people, the company looks at you as being fairly easy to be replaced at times.

As a customer, you know the company that bid on the job will have well-trained employees that will complete the job in a timely fashion. And are being treated fairly.

As an employee, how many 60yr old retired non union sheet metal workers you think there are? For that matter how many over 50 yr olds have jobs with non union sheet metal shops?

Investor? Hmmm, how many investors care whether a company is union? I would think you're looking at, will the investment make money or not. Personally, I am invested in Tesla, and I do care a bit about having my money in a company that treats employees fairly (which I think Tesla does).
 
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anionic1

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Ok UAW. We see what you are up to here. Unionizing adds cost. Period. It will also slow down or possibly even stop the innovation that Tesla is trying to make. Its already very hard if not impossibly impractical to mow through the political and municipal bullshit to actually get things built in this country. Why do you think Elon praises Tesla in China so much. Yes, they are communist, but once you get approval from the top, everyone below moves like crazy to make stuff happen. In the US you have levels upon levels of different agencies and different political and social groups trying to oppose you or use you for their gain and most municipalities move at the speed they want to move with no pressure from anyone. Why is that you ask. Because they are unionized and the workers have negotiated their contracts with cities to be extremely hard to get fired. And cities are basically corporations that have very little oversight and are also almost impossible to fail- they have a set financial stream from our taxes that they don't have to work for. So workers in cities are generally shaped by the general attitude of their leaders and from what I have seen many city leaders/politicians are more focused on their popularity than actually making a difference. And the unions give them a sense of protection and entitlement. They don't have to competitively produce anything which is never healthy for an economy.

I work in an industry that has a lot of union pressure and they often succeed in getting jobs unionized. And having worked my way to lower middle class I can definitely see the value of a real income (more than $15/hour). which is what many unions work toward so I can see that in many areas unions are great. Union labor adds money and it is important in areas where workers can be heavily exploited or when there is an excess of workers and industry can take advantage of that. When I look at Tesla and their job positions etc. I see some very amazing job opportunities and the pay seems were it should be for those jobs. Tesla is not amazon where they try to exploit every second of an employee to the extent that they are peeing in bottles.

Tesla is fighting to create a company that is revolutionizing an industry that is notoriously hard to break in to. They need the financial freedom and control to make changes quickly and shift their resources to be efficient. Unions have very strict limitations on employees rolls and unions have to get involved to vote to allow the company to make changes. That would greatly slow down the progress that Telsa is making and that progress I would argue is something not only Tesla needs but we need as humans to protect our planet. look how slowly the government and other automakers have moved toward green energy. They are crazy slow and inconsistent and wasteful and they are all unionized. Unions can also be corrupted by politicians or outside forces trying to sway elections or other BS that has no place in our livelihoods and industry.

To close this exhaustive and impromptu essay, if people don't like the non union work and pay Tesla is offering, please go work elsewhere. Ford will probably hire you and you can help them until you retire make the same thing they have made for a 100 years or help them try to keep up with Tesla. While unionizing is helpful to protect workers and their pay I don't see that being necessary with Tesla and on the contrary I think it will be detrimental to the progress we need them to make.
 


GnarlyDudeLive

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Unions were needed decades ago before there were regulatory bodies like OSHA for example to help protect the workers. IMO, It is really unnecessary now to be paying a middle man for this protection. I suppose if Tesla went union and then added in dealerships we could all enjoy Tesla vehicles costing 30% more, lol.
 

Crissa

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they can also be a roadblock to removing bad employees.
They can be, and shouldn't be.

But the same goes for company execs protecting management or 'stars' when reports of misconduct come up, too.

We need a better way.

-Crissa
 

Sirfun

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Unions were needed decades ago before there were regulatory bodies like OSHA for example to help protect the workers. IMO, It is really unnecessary now to be paying a middle man for this protection. I suppose if Tesla went union and then added in dealerships we could all enjoy Tesla vehicles costing 30% more, lol.
I've always said, prices are based on what people will pay. Your statement reminded me of what I used to say about pay. There were times when guys would be wanting to negotiate for outrageous pay. I would say, pay is based on what the employer can bill for.
This is part of what gives Tesla an advantage in their pricing. But also GM and other manufacturers will sit down with the UAW and say we can't pay your folks that much money because we have to hit our target pricing to stay competitive. So, if your people want a job, X(this) is the package we're going to negotiate for.
I'm sure Tesla employee's pay packages are influenced by Union wages, But I also think what Tesla does will influence unions too.
 
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John K

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Workers need a union to negotiate with their union.

I do not advocate doing away with unions, I would like them to be restructured to focus solely on the core principals. 100,000 feet comment
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