NEW YORK — Several employees at a Tesla factory in New York were fired a day after organizing efforts began, according to Tesla Workers United (TWU).
Workers at the Buffalo plant received an email late Wednesday notifying them of a new policy that prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without permission from all attendees, the group said in a statement on Thursday. He said such restrictions violate federal labor law and circumvent New York’s consent law to record conversations.
“They were angry. It won’t slow us down. It won’t stop us,” said Sara Costantino, a current Tesla employee and member of the organizing committee, in a prepared statement. “They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do it. But I think we will.
The Tesla factory, which makes solar panels and other renewable energy technologies, is not far from a Starbucks site where workers voted to unionize last year.
TWU said the layoffs were unacceptable and that the expectations placed on Tesla workers are “unfair, unattainable, ambiguous and constantly changing.”
“I feel shocked, I caught COVID and was out of the office and then had to go on bereavement leave. I went back to work, they told me I exceeded expectations, and then Wednesday came,” Arian Berek, a member of the organizing committee and one of the laid-off employees, said in a statement. “I strongly believe that this is retaliation for the committee’s announcement, and it is shameful.”
The Rochester Regional Joint Board of United Workers has filed a complaint against Tesla with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the electric vehicle maker of unfair labor practices.
In the complaint, the group lists the names of several employees who were part of the factory’s Autopilot department and who were fired. The group says it believes Tesla “fired these people in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity.” He is asking the NLRB for an injunction “to prevent the irreparable destruction of employee rights as a result of Tesla’s unlawful conduct.”
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said without specifically referring to the situation at the Tesla factory in Buffalo that “the President supports basic workers’ rights under the National labor relations”. .”
As part of labor organizing efforts, Tesla Workers United’s organizing committee said in a letter to management on Tuesday that employees were seeking a workplace voice at the Buffalo plant and wanted to “build an even more collaboration that strengthens the company. ”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a hard line against organized labor, despite an invitation from the United Auto Workers union to hold an organizing vote at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Tesla to have Musk delete a 2018 tweet saying he was illegally threatening employees with the loss of stock options if they chose to be represented by the UAW.
An email was sent to Tesla seeking comment, but it was widely reported that Tesla had disbanded its media relations team. The email sent to Tesla has been recovered as undeliverable.