Organizers said the firings amount to retaliation and were an attempt to discourage union activity. They are seeking an NLRB injunction to “prevent irreparable destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla’s unlawful conduct.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
Tesla Workers United, in a tweet, vowed to continue with its organizing efforts despite the terminations. “We’re angry. But this won’t slow us down or stop us. They want us to be scared, but they just started a stampede,” they wrote.
In announcing their union drive, employees at the Buffalo plant asked for better wages and job security, as well as more say in company decisions such as staffing and work conditions, according to a website set up by the union. Bloomberg News reported that employees had also complained about the company’s workplace monitoring system, which allegedly tracks employees’ keystrokes.
If the union drive succeeds, it would be a first for Tesla. Chief executive Elon Musk has been openly hostile toward unions in the past, at one point implying in a tweet that employees would lose stock options if they formed a union. A 2021 NLRB decision directed Musk to delete the tweet and reinstate an employee who had been terminated.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
