Tesla Discovers European-Style Unionism

This page is translated from the original post "Tesla découvre le syndicalisme à l’européenne" in French.

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Tesla IG Metall

Tesla’s GigaFactory in Germany faces a growing enthusiasm among its employees for the powerful union IG Metall.

IG Metall, the all-powerful union of the German automotive industry, claims to be gaining ground at Tesla with new members joining every day. Today, more than 1,000 have joined its ranks out of the 10,000 needed for proper operation.

American Airflow

This enthusiasm for unionism certainly echoes the historic strike movement that has been sweeping the American industry for the past month. More than 25,000 workers are on strike while negotiations between the unions and General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis are stalling. The United Auto Workers (UAW) has initiated an unlimited strike at three factories, one from each group. The three affected sites are assembly plants in Wayne, Michigan for Ford, Wentzville, Missouri for General Motors, and Toledo, Ohio for Stellantis-Chrysler. With two more sites joining the movement—one owned by Ford in Chicago, and another owned by GM in Lansing, Michigan—the number of striking workers now reaches 25,000.

Tesla has always managed to keep unions out of its American factories, but at the Berlin GigaFactory, the rules are different from across the Atlantic. Tesla had repelled an initial offensive by IG Metall in 2017, mainly through salary increases and stock options promised to employees. IG Metall held back but returned in 2021 by establishing a workers’ committee within the factory. Today, with nearly 10% of the workforce unionized, the union has mobilized to express concerns about working conditions at Tesla GigaFactory Berlin. The main issues are the relentless recruitment, sometimes at the expense of experience. Tesla and the local government have naturally contested the union’s claims regarding incident rates and working conditions at the factory, but IG Metall nonetheless claims to have evidence of “190 reportable accidents between June and November 2022”.

Tesla in Trouble

This week, the situation escalated with the appearance of IG Metall stickers on the work uniforms of many employees. One can read: “Together for safe and fair working conditions at Tesla”. The action is expected to continue throughout the day.

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

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