Tesla, Inc., an American electric car and solar panel manufacturer, has more than 140,000 workers employed across its global operations almost none of whom are unionized. Despite allegations of high injury rates, long hours, and below-industry pay, efforts to unionize the workforce have been largely unsuccessful. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has commented negatively on trade unions in relation to the company. Tesla has been involved in labor disputes in the United States, Germany, and Sweden, including an ongoing strike in Sweden.
Tesla is the only major American automaker whose workforce is not represented by a union in the United States. None of the union drives in Tesla Fremont Factory and Gigafactory New York have been successful. In late , United Auto Workers announced renewed unionization efforts.
According to automotive union IG Metall, in Germany, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg's non-union status and lower wages compared to industry standards has weakened the structural power of Metall. Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and Tesla Automation have works councils, without union collective agreement coverage. Tesla Automation signed a remuneration-related works agreement with its works council, while refusing to sign a comparable collective agreement with IG Metall.
In Sweden, mechanics from TM Sweden, a Tesla vehicle service subsidiary, and affiliated with IF Metall went on strike from –, which expanded when 14 other trade unions across Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway joined by initiating their own solidarity strikes. This was the longest strike in Sweden since the Saltsjöbaden Agreement. It concluded when IF Metall announced the end of the strike because Tesla had offered severance packages to the remaining 80 striking employees. IF Metall commented that this was unparalleled in Swedish labor history.
United States
Tesla employs 70,000 workers across the United States . Tesla is the only American automaker whose workers are not represented by a union in the United States. None of the unionization efforts since have been successful. These efforts were led by United Auto Workers (UAW) in Fremont Factory in , United Steelworkers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Gigafactory New York (Giga New York) in , and Workers United in Giga New York in . Several months later, UAW announced renewed nation-wide organizing efforts.
Employer opposition to unions is common in the United States. In cases of illegal interference, such as unfair labor practices, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has limited mechanisms to enforce the law under the National Labor Relations Act – which codifies worker rights. Unlike the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the NLRB cannot impose fines. Employees in a workplace can form a union if a majority sign union cards or vote in a supervised election. Despite overall low union density (ratio of unionized to non-unionized workers), recent organizing successes have renewed public interest. According to labor sociologist Joshua Mayor, unionization efforts sometimes fail not because workers are against unions, but because workers do not believe they can win. Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that he supported Musk's policies of union busting during an interview with Musk. The United Auto Workers later filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk.
Fremont Factory Tesla acquired the formerly unionized NUMMI plant in Fremont, California in , which became the Tesla Fremont Factory. Tesla employs 20,000 workers in the Fremont Factory.
United Auto Workers (UAW) president Dennis Williams expressed interest in unionizing the factory in , shortly after Tesla announced increased local annual production targets of 500,000 vehicles by , which would have placed it in the top ten sellers of new vehicles within the US. In the fall of , Jose Moran, a Fremont Factory employee, contacted UAW, going public with a "Fair Future at Tesla" campaign in , citing high injury rates, long hours and below industry pay as motivations. In , Tesla fired Richard Ortiz, who was involved with the organizing campaign, which the NLRB later ruled to be illegal retaliation.
CEO Elon Musk published a tweet in , that implied workers would lose stocks if they formed a union. Three years later, the NLRB ordered Musk to delete that tweet, and reinstate former employee Ortiz with full back pay. Additionally, Tesla would have to put up a notice in all of its US factories addressing the unlawful tweet.
Tesla appealed the NLRB rulings to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which in initially upheld the NLRB order. In a published response, Ortiz stated "I look forward to returning to work at Tesla and working with my co-workers to finish the job of forming a union". In a rehearing, the court reversed its decision, holding Musk's tweets to be constitutionally protected speech and that the NLRB must reconsider its order to reinstate Ortiz.
Four years after the initial tweet, Musk invited UAW, via another tweet, to hold a union election at their convenience without retaliation. UAW president Ray Curry responded that if Tesla was serious about supporting organizing, Tesla would acknowledge they broke the law when they fired Ortiz and Musk published the initial tweet.
A CNBC report in found that Tesla paid public relations firm MikeWorldWide to monitor a Tesla employee Facebook group and union organizers on social media from to . MikeWorldWide monitored discussions regarding alleged unfair labor practices at Tesla and a sexual harassment lawsuit. Former and current Tesla employees told CNBC that they believed the company continued to monitor its workers on social media
UAW won 30–160 percent salary increases at the "Big Three" in late . The new UAW president Shawn Fain attributed previous unionizing failures to internal corruption, "coziness" with management and bad collective agreements. UAW subsequently launched organizing drives at 13 non-union automakers, including Tesla, with a combined organizing budget of US$40 million through . By contrast, UAW had spent $422,000 on Tesla alone in ().
Giga New York
In , 300 workers at the solar panel factory at Giga New York in Buffalo, New York, announced a union drive with the support of United Steelworkers (USW) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. USW filed a complaint with the NLRB the following , alleging that Tesla illegally surveilled workers and fired six of them in retaliation, but the case was withdrawn in .
Workers who label data for Tesla Autopilot at Giga New York in Buffalo announced a union drive with Workers United on . Workers United previously led the first successful union drive at Starbucks, also in Buffalo, away. A day after the announcement, Workers United filed charges with the NLRB against Tesla for firing 37 workers (including one organizing committee member) in alleged retaliation for union activity and to allegedly discourage union organizing. In , the NLRB dismissed the retaliatory firing charge, but found merit in the other charges regarding workplace surveillance and captive audience meetings.
Following allegations raised by Workers United, the NLRB regional director in Buffalo, New York filed a complaint with the national board in alleging that Tesla had unlawfully implemented company policies to prevent workers at its Buffalo plant from unionizing, including by implementing a corporate IT acceptable use policy that restricted workplace organizing.
Germany
Tesla is one of the few automakers in Germany that has not signed any individual , nor is a member of the Employer Association in the The Metal and Electronics Industry refers to the corresponding network of companies in the sector that negotiates with IG Metall. There are elected works councils at Tesla automation and Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg.
German labor representation has a dual structure of trade unions and works councils. Trade unions like IG Metall negotiate collective agreements with individual employers and regional collective agreements with employers associations (e.g. textile or chemical industry). Works councils are made up of elected employees in the workplace. They negotiate works agreements and have various co-determination, participation and information rights. In theory works councils do not overlap with collective bargaining regarding wage adjustments. While formally separate structures, many works council members are de-facto union representatives. Unions are financed by membership dues which are typically of a member's salary. The more union members and the higher their wages (whether or not they are covered by a collective agreement), the more financial resources a union has.
Tesla poses a structural challenge to IG Metall in the automotive sector, because electric vehicle production requires fewer workers than traditional internal combustion-engine vehicles. IG Metall membership declined by from to , while the automotive labor market has grown, especially in companies without regional collective agreements. The overall trend toward vehicle electrification and a non-union Tesla weakens IG Metall's bargaining power in the broader German automotive sector due to lower union density (ratio of unionized to non-unionized workers).
Tesla Automation Tesla acquired Grohmann Engineering (now Tesla Automation) in , inheriting the existing works council. According to IG Metall and the works council chair Uwe Herzig said that wages at Grohmann Engineering in April, after the acquisition, were to below the equivalent of the regional collective agreements in the . In October, management and the works council concluded a works agreement that brought employee wages in line with the regional collective agreement without explicitly signing a union collective agreement. IG Metall pushed for formal ratification, while acknowledging that there had been a "very good negotiation result". It credited the threat of strikes with pressuring Tesla to sign the works agreements.
Giga Berlin
According to IG Metall, in , Tesla offered employees at the new Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg (Giga Berlin), wages that were below the corresponding collective agreements provided at other automotive plants in Germany.
Seven non-union employees at Giga Berlin initiated the process in . Any employee with at least six months of tenure is eligible to run as a works council candidate. Tesla ultimately planned to hire a total of 12,000 employees. In the first six months, Tesla hired 1,800 employees, mostly middle-management. IG Metall expressed concern that the future works council would be dominated by management, as only those with 6 months' tenure would be eligible to run. In , employees elected their first works council. Nearly half voted for the manager-friendly "Gigavoice" slate.
IG Metall called for an investigation in , after workers reported being forced to work longer hours, with less resting time between shifts. IG Metall also stated that workers were being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements and therefore feared retaliation if they openly discussed their working conditions.