Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on May 6, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.
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Tesla The company is accused of taking steps to prevent employees in Buffalo, N.Y., from joining a union, according to a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board.
NLRB Buffalo District Director Linda Leslie filed the complaint on Tuesday. In it, she said that after the charges were filed, Tesla “enacted and maintained” an acceptable workplace technology policy designed to “prevent its employees from forming, joining or assisting unions or engaging in other coordinated activities” by workers proposed by members of the federation.
CNBC obtained a copy of the complaint through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The policy restricts Tesla employees from “conducting recordings, unauthorized solicitation (sic) or promotion” and “creating pipelines and distribution lists,” among other things, according to the complaint.
The NLRB also claimed that the policy had the effect of “interfering with, restricting, and coercing employees from exercising their rights guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act,” which generally protects workers’ rights to discuss organizing, join unions, and bargain collectively for better employment. Good pay and working conditions.
Tesla’s Buffalo factory was originally supposed to produce solar panels, but it has recently been used to assemble electric vehicle charging equipment and house a team of artificial intelligence software data tags.
Last month, the Buffalo plant made multiple layoffs as part of a broader restructuring of the electric vehicle company.according to a Warning notification submitted In the state, Tesla will lay off 285 employees in New York state, most of them at the Buffalo plant. The company is cutting thousands of jobs globally after sales of electric vehicles fell in the first quarter.
Tesla and Chief Executive Musk have clashed with union supporters for years and have been found to have engaged in union-busting activities. In 2021, the NLRB ruled that Tesla violated labor laws by firing a union activist and Musk wrote on twitter 2018: “Nothing is stopping the Tesla team at our auto plants from voting union. They can do so if they want. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?”
The Administrative Court ordered the CEO to eliminate the position. Tesla challenged the order, but its request for review was denied.Post in question remains On Musk’s X account, he has 182.7 million followers.
Tesla also faces workers’ rights challenges in Europe. Last year, Swedish service technicians began a strike that continues to this day, with labor organizations at times allowing some authorized work to be carried out. Most workplaces in Sweden are unionized, and workers in the country are seeking a collective bargaining agreement with Tesla.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the complaint here:
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