Tesla CEO Elon Musk invites UAW to hold union vote at California factory

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TECH
Elon Musk dares union to hold vote at Tesla factory after Biden’s pro-labor speech
PUBLISHED THU, MAR 3 20229:37 PM EST

KEY POINTS
  • Elon Musk challenged the United Auto Workers to try and organize his company’s assembly plant in Fremont, California.
  • His comments followed President Biden’s praise of Ford and GM in his State of the Union address.
  • Musk has been a vocal critic of the UAW for years.

Tesla Cybertruck Tesla CEO Elon Musk invites UAW to hold union vote at California factory -gettyimages-1270402636-maja6508_20200903125258957

Maja Hitij | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk challenged the United Auto Workers to try and organize employees at his company’s plant in Fremont, California, and stepped up his attacks on the Biden administration’s policies.

In a series of tweets this week, Musk went after the union, a topic that he’s been more vocal about since President Joe Biden, a supporter of organized labor, took office.

“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!” Musk tweeted late Wednesday. “I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.”




According to the California Employment Development Department’s website, Fremont had an unemployment rate of 3.1% in December 2021, the most recent available data.

Musk’s union criticism is nothing new. In 2018, he made comments that were found to have violated federal labor laws after Tesla had fired a union activist.



The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Tesla to rehire the employee, and to have Musk delete the tweet. But Tesla is appealing the administrative court’s decision.

Musk’s latest tweets continued a thread from Tuesday night, when Biden was presenting his State of the Union address. In the speech, Biden lauded General Motors and Ford for their plans to invest in more electric vehicle production in the U.S.

Musk responded by telling his 76 million-plus followers that “Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined.”




GM said it expects annual capital expenditures of between $9 billion and $10 billion, largely supporting the transition to EVs, while Ford plans to spend $5 billion on its EV efforts this year. Tesla said it plans to spend $5 billion to $7 billion this year to support its projects globally.

Musk has been particularly perturbed with Biden of late. He attacked the administration’s Build Back Better proposal, which includes incentives for U.S. consumers to buy electric vehicles, with larger ones if they buy union-made EVs. And he’s taken on Biden for his general reluctance to mention Tesla by name alongside other U.S. car manufacturers, though he did so last month.
Tesla Cybertruck Tesla CEO Elon Musk invites UAW to hold union vote at California factory ettyimages-1238864006-USA_BIDEN_STATE_OF_THE_UNION

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on March 1, 2022 in Washington.
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

One of Musk’s tweets this week included a YouTube video that he says “helps explain why former UAW members who work at Tesla are not huge fans of UAW.” The clip was published in 2010 by the World Socialist Web Site channel on YouTube.

In the video, workers at the NUMMI plant, which would later become Tesla’s first electric vehicle factory, are seen complaining that a union member was prevented from recording a UAW meeting in the local union hall.

Musk is not the UAW’s lone critic. The Detroit-based union is under federal oversight through a court-approved monitor as part of a settlement between the UAW and the government following a multiyear corruption probe that sent 15 people to prison, including two recent UAW presidents and three Fiat Chrysler executives.

The investigation uncovered years of bribery and kickback schemes involving several top union leaders.

Brian Rothenberg, a UAW spokesman, declined to comment on Musk’s tweets but noted that Tesla has appealed the NLRB ruling asking the company to “comply with basic organizing rights.”
The UAW operates an organizing office near the Fremont plant with a small amount of people.
Rothenberg wouldn’t discuss any union organizing efforts at Tesla or other EV companies, citing union policy not to comment on activities until petitions are filed.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The burgeoning EV market presents a challenge to the UAW, which found in a 2018 study that Detroit automakers transitioning to electric could cost the union tens of thousands of jobs. Battery electric vehicles require far fewer parts than those made with internal combustion engines, and many of the parts are made outside the U.S.

Even as unions have struggled to retain members, President Biden is urging Congress to pass legislation to protect workers’ rights. He’s proposed the Pro Act, which calls for punishing employers that engage in illegal union opposition, wage theft and worker misclassification.
“When a majority of workers want to form a union, they shouldn’t be stopped,” Biden said in Tuesday’s address.




https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/03/elo...d-vote-at-tesla-factory-after-biden-sotu.html
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Crissa

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Note not included in the article: The UAW specifically campaigns against stock options as being part of compensation.

(They do that because having your investments in your employer when that employer gets in trouble usually means the investments goes with it. Never have all your eggs in one basket. It's also why they prefer pension plans to 401Ks, as they can be protected from bankruptcy in theory. However, in the tech industry, we consider options a decent perk because it means in mergers and buyouts, the employee also has to get paid.)

So the description of Elon as 'threatening' it was not at all appropriate, and somewhat two-faced by the Union.

That said, I think the workers should Unionize. But one that's built for their needs, not legacy workers back East. Even a weak Union could provide counsel and protect workers from managerial abuses like those alleged in the court cases. Having an organization devoted to the workers - and making sure the workplace is safe and equitable - benefits the company as well as the workers. A Union could have dealt with the claims that the state regulator was unable to share with Tesla while worried about reprisal against those workers.

-Crissa
 

Ogre

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… It's also why they prefer pension plans to 401Ks, as they can be protected from bankruptcy in theory. …
I know you are quoting their justification, not your opinion on this.

Pension plans are a neat idea, but most of them aren’t pre-funded so subject to even worse eggs-in-one-basket issues than 401ks. Companies have reduced pension plans and slashed employees retirements after the fact.

I do agree with their stance on tying your retirement to your company. But I don’t see stock options as part of retirement. They are part of compensation. Also if you want to be independent your retirement shouldn’t be something your employer controls (—much like health care—). Also, pensions tie you to an employer. If that employer goes bankrupt, your retirement can easily vanish entirely.
 

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Stock held where you work incentivises employee performance which in turn grows your own stock.
 


Ogre

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Stock held where you work incentivises employee performance which in turn grows your own stock.
A friend of mine worked for NorTel back in the 90s. He had a fairly sizable retirement built up… in Nortel stock. Stock options and employee purchase plan were too tempting and Nortel was crushing it into the end of the 90s.

He was 1-2 years from retirement when NorTel went bust. He had nearly $1m in NorTel stock which was worth quite a bit in the 90s. He got laid off and his retirement account collapsed to 1/5th or less what it was.

Stock and options are **compensation** not retirement. It’s in the companies best interest for you to own stock, often not your own. Cash those puppies out as soon you can pay the lower long term capital gains on those guys. Owning too much of the company you work for is doubly dangerous.
 
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A friend of mine worked for NorTel back in the 90s. He had a fairly sizable retirement built up… in Nortel stock. Stock options and employee purchase plan were too tempting and Nortel was crushing it into the end of the 90s.

He was 1-2 years from retirement when NorTel went bust. He had nearly $1m in NorTel stock which was worth quite a bit in the 90s. He got laid off and his retirement account collapsed to 1/5th or less what it was.

Stock and options are **compensation** not retirement. It’s in the companies best interest for you to own stock, often not your own. Cash those puppies out as soon you can pay the lower long term capital gains on those guys. Owning too much of the company you work for is doubly dangerous.
I remember the crash of Nortel Networks. I owned shares of JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU).

Owning too much of the company you work for is doubly dangerous.
ENRON, Worldcom.
 

JBee

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A friend of mine worked for NorTel back in the 90s. He had a fairly sizable retirement built up… in Nortel stock. Stock options and employee purchase plan were too tempting and Nortel was crushing it into the end of the 90s.

He was 1-2 years from retirement when NorTel went bust. He had nearly $1m in NorTel stock which was worth quite a bit in the 90s. He got laid off and his retirement account collapsed to 1/5th or less what it was.

Stock and options are **compensation** not retirement. It’s in the companies best interest for you to own stock, often not your own. Cash those puppies out as soon you can pay the lower long term capital gains on those guys. Owning too much of the company you work for is doubly dangerous.
Timing is everything. Never hold one stock. Never put all eggs in one basket. All companies cycle, some cycle so hard they die. Investing in shares is not wealth creation, it is taking risk for profit.

My financial retirement plan is to be flat broke before I die, and give everything away that I can while I live. Give, not sell. Its harder than you think. ;)
 

Crissa

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Anyhow, I found the whole argument from the Union super-disingenuous when they had it written into law that those who had stock options couldn't be part of the Union. And then to pretend Elon said he'd take them away (he didn't) while the Union's actual stance was that those who got options weren't worthy of Union protection.

Unions are important. But just like politicians, there are some good and some bad. In nearly all cases, when push comes to shove, having a Union is better.

Just like they say about democracy: It's a terrible system - except it's better than all the others.

-Crissa
 

Ogre

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My financial retirement plan is to be flat broke before I die, and give everything away that I can while I live. Give, not sell. Its harder than you think. ;)
Be nice, but timing is tough.

Suck to run out of money 2 years before you die and end up truly miserable for a couple years.
 


JBee

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Anyhow, I found the whole argument from the Union super-disingenuous when they had it written into law that those who had stock options couldn't be part of the Union. And then to pretend Elon said he'd take them away (he didn't) while the Union's actual stance was that those who got options weren't worthy of Union protection.

Unions are important. But just like politicians, there are some good and some bad. In nearly all cases, when push comes to shove, having a Union is better.

Just like they say about democracy: It's a terrible system - except it's better than all the others.

-Crissa
Only misinformed work force class people say that. The rest have moved on. Unions can only exist in a democracy, where people are brainwashed into being followers without an original thought that they can call their own.

A representative democracy is not a democracy if money buys politicians and money controls "common" people ideas through the media. Thats a capitalist dictatorship, where whoever holds the coin is "king".
 

JBee

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Be nice, but timing is tough.

Suck to run out of money 2 years before you die and end up truly miserable for a couple years.
I'm sure my kids/grandkids will take me in as they do the same. Theres so much wealth you can have without currency. ;-)
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