Tesla Bows Under Union Pressure

Facing its first strike movement, Tesla granted a general raise to all employees at its Berlin Gigafactory.

IG Metall, the all-powerful union of the German automotive industry, managed to make the Tesla giant bend. The American manufacturer announced that the employees of its German plant will receive a salary increase in 2024. A strong gesture following the 6% increase granted in 2023. A seemingly superficial increase, according to the union, which states that the wages of Tesla Berlin Gigafactory employees remain 20% below those of competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz. That is certainly true, but unlike Tesla employees, the workers at German automakers are covered by sector collective agreements. It’s not certain this will be enough to appease the union, which currently counts 1,000 strikers out of the 10,000 employees needed for the unit’s proper functioning.

Tesla Discovers European Union Unionism

This enthusiasm for unionism inevitably echoes the historic strike movement currently hitting the American industry for the past month. Over 25,000 employees are on strike as negotiations between unions and General Motors,Ford, and Stellantis stall. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has launched an unlimited strike in three factories, one for each group. The affected sites are assembly plants in Wayne, Michigan for Ford, Wentzville, Missouri for General Motors, and Toledo, Ohio for Stellantis-Chrysler. With two additional sites joining the movement, one owned by Ford in Chicago, and another owned by GM in Lansing, Michigan, the number of striking workers has reached 25,000.

Tesla has always managed to keep unions away from its American factories, but in the Berlin Gigafactory, the rules are not the same as across the Atlantic. Tesla had previously resisted an initial attempt by IG Metall in 2017, through substantial salary increases and stock options promised to employees. IG Metall held firm and returned in 2021 by establishing a workers’ committee within the Factory. Today, with almost 10% of the workforce unionized, the union has entered the scene expressing concerns about working conditions at Tesla GigaFactory Berlin. The main issues include the rapid recruitment process, sometimes at the expense of experience. Tesla and local government have of course disputed the union’s claims about incident rates and working conditions at the plant, but IG Metall claims to have evidence of “190 reportable accidents between June and November 2022”.

Elon Musk has just learned a new lesson. Behind every car sold, there are men.

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