Tesla Workers in Buffalo Seek to Unionize

A group of Tesla workers at a plant in Buffalo, New York, have launched a campaign to unionize in pursuit of higher wages, better benefits, and more dignified treatment. The organization, dubbed Tesla Workers United, seeks to become the first of its kind at Tesla, which is the only automaker in the US without a union.

“We are Tesla workers seeking a voice on the job by forming a union, Tesla Workers United,” reads a statement(Opens in a new window) published today. “We believe that by having a union at Tesla, we will further the mission of sustainability and foster a progressive environment for us all. We strongly believe that sustainability starts with us.”

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The Buffalo site is the hub of Tesla’s energy business, which is growing at twice the rate of its vehicles business, CEO Elon Musk said on last month’s earnings call. Tesla has been making solar cells, solar panels, and Powerwall products there since 2017, according to the website(Opens in a new window). In 2019, it expanded to include Supercharger electrical components. The site has created 800 jobs to date, with plans to get up to 5,000 in the next 10 years.

One of the employees’ biggest concerns is Tesla’s granular monitoring of their time spent on tasks, down to specific keystrokes, which workers say disincentivizes bathroom breaks that would count against them. “People are tired of being treated like robots,” Al Celli, a member of the union organizing committee, tells(Opens in a new window) Bloomberg.

Employees also say Tesla pays them less than national averages, with limited sick time. There are currently dozens of job openings at the site for production associates, supervisors, HR partners, and more. Positions as overnight production associates(Opens in a new window) and data labelers(Opens in a new window), presumably entry-level or near entry-level, post pay ranges between $18 and $21 per hour. This seems to be roughly the same as the national average, though Tesla Workers United has not called out any specific positions and salaries.

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Their first and main demand is that Tesla agrees to their plan to organize. “We are asking Tesla management to sign the Fair Election Principles, which states they will refrain from threatening or retaliating against workers for organizing, agree to a quick and fair election process, and give the union equal time to hold meetings or post info!”

Musk has been vocally anti-union, as he maintains his company offers the highest wages in the auto industry including stock options, NPR reports(Opens in a new window). The United Auto Workers (UAW), the organization behind the unions at most US car companies, has been attempting to bring Tesla into the fold since at least 2017, when employees at Tesla’s Fremont, California, location expressed interest.

Unionizers at the Buffalo plant are not working with the UAW, however, and have opted instead for the Workers United Upstate New York. The organization is “a descendant of the garment workers unions that helped build a strong labor movement 100 years ago,” says the Tesla Workers United website. “Today, this is the same union that started the Starbucks Workers United campaign in Buffalo that spread across the country.”

The group says it is both “pro-Tesla and pro-union,” and its members seek to make working at Tesla a lifelong career that yields the best results for both them and Tesla.

“We are only asking for a seat in the car that we helped build,” says Keenan Lasch, a member of a group calling itself Tesla Workers United, as reported(Opens in a new window) by the New York Times.

Musk has not publicly responded to the union yet.