Feb 14 (Portal) – Workers at Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O) in upstate New York said Tuesday they are launching a campaign to form a union, setting the stage for the latest labor challenge for Chief Executive Elon Musk.
In a letter to the electric car maker’s executive board, workers announced their plan to organize at Workers United Upstate New York.
The union, if formed, would be a first for Tesla, which has so far managed to avoid unionization at its US plants, unlike other major automakers.
Musk has been vocal against unions in the past, and faced the wrath of the US National Labor Relations Board when it ordered him to delete a 2018 tweet that said employees would lose their stock options if they lost one would form a union.
“We believe that unionization will give us a voice in our workplace that we believe has been ignored until now,” the workers said in a press release on Tuesday. “We’re only asking for a seat in the car we helped build.”
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The letter, first reported by Bloomberg News earlier in the day, quoted employees urging Tesla to respect their right to organize a union and urging the world’s most valuable automaker to sign the Fair Election Principles.
Employees said the right to form a union is a fundamental civil right and the principles would prevent Tesla from threatening or retaliating against workers for forming a union.
“We as workers deserve to be able to negotiate fair working conditions with our employers, and there are many changes I would like to see at Tesla for the benefit of workers,” Alexis Hy, a Tesla employee, said in a statement.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Portal request for comment.
Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Edited by Sherry Jacob Phillips
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