Tesla fired dozens of workers at its Buffalo, New York, plant on Wednesday, the day after employees announced a union campaign, according to a new complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board by the Workers United labor union.
Driving the news: Workers United alleged in the complaint that Tesla terminated the workers "in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity."
- The complaint asks the NLRB for an injunction to "prevent irreparable destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla’s unlawful conduct."
The big picture: Tesla workers at the Buffalo plant announced their union campaign on Tuesday, seeking better wages, job security, a say in workplace decision-making, and a reduction in monitoring and production pressures, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.
- The Tesla workers are organizing with Workers United, which has helped unionize hundreds of Starbucks cafes across the country.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been vocal about his opposition to unions in the past.
State of play: Tesla Workers United called the firings "unacceptable," in a statement Thursday and said the company's expectations for employees "are unfair, unattainable, ambiguous and ever changing."
- Workers also received a company email Wednesday evening telling them of a new policy to ban them from "recording workplace meetings without all participants' permission," according to the statement.
- The statement noted that the company policy violated federal labor law as well as New York’s one-party consent law to record conversations.
What they're saying: "I feel blind sided, 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. I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it’s shameful," said Arian Berek, one of the fired employees and organizing committee member, in the statement.
- “We’re angry. This won’t slow us down. This won’t stop us. They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do this. But I believe we will do this,” Sara Costantino, current Tesla employee and organizing committee member, said in the statement.
