|
The
automaker responded to a union complaint filed with a government
agency alleging that the company laid off dozens of employees
from its Autopilot department at its Buffalo plant in New York,
a day after workers launched a campaign to form a union.
The company said the impacted employees were identified on Feb.
3, which was before the union campaign was announced. "We became
aware of organizing activities approximately 10 days later," the
company said, adding that the layoffs predated any union
campaign.
Earlier this week, Tesla workers in New York said they will
unionize with Workers United Upstate New York, which would help
give them a voice at their workplace.
The Workers United Upstate New York union in a filing with the
U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) earlier on Wednesday
accused the world's most valuable automaker of hitting back by
terminating some of the employees "in retaliation for union
activity".
The company fired more than 30 employees, the union said in the
statement, adding that the workers also received an email with
an updated policy, which prohibits them from recording workplace
meetings without all participants' permission.
"This policy violates federal labor law and also flouts New
York's one-party consent law to record conversations."
Over the last six months, the company said the department's
employee base has grown 54% to 675 employees as of the beginning
of this week, from 437 earlier.
The employees had asked the electric carmaker to respect their
right to organize a union and called on the company to sign the
Fair Election Principles, which would prevent Tesla from
threatening or retaliating against the workers.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has in the past been vocal
about his opposition to unions and said in a 2018 tweet that
employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union,
prompting the NLRB to ask him to delete the tweet.
(Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam, Akash Sriram, and Akanksha
Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi
Aich)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
