Send in the union

[EV-lutioin]

If employees are well compensated and provided with a healthy work environment, they will not need to unionize. Unions are a reaction to poor employment practices. I think Tesla is aware of this and is trying to create the best work environment they can under the extreme pressure of a rapidly growing company. Are they succeeding.... sometimes yes, sometimes no, but installing a roller coaster to ferry employees to the Bart station is definitely a step in the right direction.

Elon Musk Promises Roller Coasters, Free Frozen Yogurt For Tesla Employees

 

[sandpiper]

If employees are well compensated and provided with a healthy work environment, they will not need to unionize. Unions are a reaction to poor employment practices. I think Tesla is aware of this and is trying to create the best work environment they can under the extreme pressure of a rapidly growing company. Are they succeeding.... sometimes yes, sometimes no, but installing a roller coaster to ferry employees to the Bart station is definitely a step in the right direction.

Elon Musk Promises Roller Coasters, Free Frozen Yogurt For Tesla Employees

Unfortunately it doesn't work this way. You can't make everybody happy. Inevitably people want more for less; that's just human. And people will always compare themselves more favorably relative to their peers than others do. That's also human. You can certainly do a fair bit with the working environment, but inevitably there is a limit to what the company can pay, and people will be required to work.

There's a rich cynical vein that runs through the blue collar workforce that inevitably thinks that all engineers and managers are idiots, that every company is making gazillions of dollars, no matter what the balance sheet shows, and that the company is out to screw the workers. Unions tap into this vein to their own benefit. Why pay union dues if you don't think that the leadership can squeeze more $$ for less work out of the company? Unions need to position the company as the enemy, so that they have somebody to protect the hard-done workers from.

Once the workforce gets large enough it's virtually impossible to not build a critical mass of whiners, needed to form a union.

 

[Mrs Rubbertoe]

A forecast of "Production Hell" begins to make sense after reading this article about automotive union strikes:

5 largest manufacturing strikes in United Automotive Workers history

Quote: "Conditions in these plants were hellish. Workers weren't allowed bathroom breaks and often soiled themselves while standing at their stations. Workers were pushed to the limit on 12-14 hour shifts, six days a week. The production speed was nearly impossibly fast and debilitating injuries were common. In July 1936, temperatures inside the Flint plants reached over 100 degrees, yet managers refused to slow the line. Heat exhaustion killed hundreds of workers. Their families could expect no compensation for their deaths."

That was 80 years ago. It's a whole other ball game now. And this isn't a third world country.

 

[TaoJones]

Unions in the United States, generally speaking, and in particular the UAW, Teamsters, teachers, and various unions associated with the Ports (e.g., for longshoremen and clerks but not limited thereto) have long outlived their once-justified usefulness. Try getting a job at the Ports - good luck. Then look at how far behind those same Ports are relative to the rest of the world. The teachers' union(s) in Los Angeles are a flat out disgrace.

UAW made sure that the original GM plant (now Tesla) failed - once overtly back in the day, and a second time under the NUMMI arrangement.

Note that Tesla already placated these leeches once by paying top dollar for the former UAW union hall a few years back.

Unionization *in the United States* would clearly be a Bad Deal for Tesla factory workers - especially when ownership in the form of stock options is available.

The caveat is obvious - Tesla needs to continue to ensure that there is transparent, visible, measureable improvement at Fremont, and by extension at GF1.

Give workers a voice, ownership and results - then the workers themselves will tell the UAW to crawl back under its own rock.

 

[alevek]

Unions are necessary to ensure the survival of the Democratic Party. That's really their only function.

 

[Mark Z]

That was 80 years ago. It's a whole other ball game now. And this isn't a third world country.

You re right. The robots can work 24/7 and not suffer any of the horrors mentioned. Tesla should fight unionization since a union would, IMHO, stop the expansion of robot technology and force Tesla to replace robots with people. Ideally, the only people at Fremont should be the robot technicians and the IT/engineering staff sitting at their computers.

 

[EVCollies]

I think the only prevention for unionization is employee ownership. I've seen many successful examples such as Hensel Phelps Construction in our local town.

 

[jeffro01]

No. No. No.... If unions get in at Tesla you can kiss the company good bye while they work to bleed Tesla completely dry... Unions are a cancer on the workforce...

Jeff

 

[omarsultan]

Tesla slapped with unfair labor practices complaint by NLRB

I do believe there are useful unions out there, just not the UAW. If they are successful in their efforts, all they are going to accomplish is to accelerate the transition to robots.

 

[sandpiper]

Tesla slapped with unfair labor practices complaint by NLRB

I do believe there are useful unions out there, just not the UAW. If they are successful in their efforts, all they are going to accomplish is to accelerate the transition to robots.

There's lots of room for a new assembly plant in Nevada. And I'm sure the Carolinas would love to have one. And Mexico.