Tesla Workers Slam Musk For Firing Union Organizers In NY Plant

Several employees at a Tesla factory in New York have been fired a day after launching union organizing efforts, according to Tesla Workers United, but the company says they’re not related, Michelle Chapman reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: In a statement, Tesla said the terminations were the result of poor ratings on performance reviews that were conducted before the union campaign was announced.

The workers at the Buffalo plant received an email Wednesday evening updating them on a new policy that prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without all participants’ permission, Tesla Workers United (TWU) said Thursday.

The group, which is behind the union movement, said that such restrictions violate federal labor law and flouts New York’s one-party consent law to record conversations.

“We’re angry. This won’t slow us down. This won’t stop us,” Sara Costantino, a current Tesla employee and organizing committee member, said in a prepared statement. “They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do this. But I believe we will do this.”

In a statement, Tesla said the terminations were the result of poor ratings on performance reviews that were conducted before the union campaign was announced.

The list of employees being dismissed was finalized Feb. 3, and Tesla became aware of organizing activities Feb. 13, the company said. “We learned in hindsight that one out of the 27 impacted employees officially identified as part of the union campaign,” Tesla said. “This exercise pre-dated any union campaign.”

TWU said that the firings were unacceptable and that the expectations placed on Tesla workers are “unfair, unattainable, ambiguous and ever-changing.”

The Tesla plant, which makes solar panels and other renewable energy technology, is not far from a Starbucks location where workers voted to unionize last year.

“I feel blindsided, I got COVID and was out of the office, then I had to take a bereavement leave. I returned to work, was told I was exceeding expectations and then Wednesday came along,” organizing committee member Arian Berek, who is one of the fired employees, said in a statement.

“I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement, and it’s shameful.”

The Rochester Regional Joint Board of Workers United has filed a complaint against Tesla with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the electric vehicle maker of unfair labor practices.

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