If correct, how does this help the workers? Or did it just feed "the (different) man"?
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UAW sends out organizers to unionize Tesla’s factory
- Thread starter FlatSix911
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- Tesla Inc.
So UAW accepted money at the expense of the workers they supposedly represent.
The Federal government under Obama essentially gifted UAW a majority stake in the US auto industry whilst UAW screwed over the workers in "negotiations".
And to top it off, UAW made $5.6 million in contributions to the Democrats during 2016 whilst spending a further $1.8 million lobbying. During the same year they cut retiree medical benefits.
The UAW are a cancerous leech on the workers and the American people.
shrspeedblade
Rideshare Monkey
While I agree with what you just said, I feel the need to point out that those amounts are absolutely paltry in comparison to the sums given by large U.S. (and now sometimes not!) multinational corporations either directly or through dark money routes. Demonizing it is the equivalent of pointing out a cancerous mole while ignoring the stage 4 lung cancer.
And the bitter irony is that because to such a large degree organized labor (in this country at least) is such a diseased, cancerous shell of what it was and should be it's merely an enabler on our steady march to plutocracy.
Actually it was a UAW VEBA trust ... An employee benefit plan entity that is limited to being used to provide benefits to employees and retirees.
Same entity owned the larger position in Chrysler. Both positions were sold I believe.
Does this trust apply to a broad UAW spectrum or just those associated with the situation that led to the 17.5%?
More specifically, in any sense at all is this "payout" actually directed to those that it affected? Or is it just "global" UAW "fund" like our government "taxes for roads" that don't actually get invested in roads?
It is pretty limited to just using its assets to benefit the retirees History of the Trust
but I think it is all retirees, not just those involved at the time.
They pay their people pretty well:
info on their holdings in GM and Chrysler (they sold to Fiat --- later GM bought back the GM shares held by the Trust I believe).
Elon Musk addresses Tesla employees in leaked email: claims higher comp than Ford/GM, lower incident rate, & new ‘roller coaster’
Here’s the email in full sent late last night to all Tesla employees:
For Tesla to become and remain one of the great companies of the 21st century, we must have an environment that is as safe, fair and fun as possible. It is incredibly important to me that you look forward to coming to work every day. For that, we must be a fair and just company – the only kind worth creating. This is vital to succeed in our mission to accelerate the advent of a clean, sustainable energy future. The forces arrayed against us are many and incredibly powerful. This is David vs Goliath if David were six inches tall! Only by being smarter, faster and working well as a tightly integrated team do we have any chance of success. We should never forget the history of car startups originating in the United States: dozens have gone bankrupt and only two, Tesla and Ford, have not. Despite the odds being strongly against us, my faith in you is why I am confident that we will succeed.
That is why I was so distraught when I read the recent blog post promoting the UAW, which does not share our mission and whose true allegiance is to the giant car companies, where the money they take from employees in dues is vastly more than they could ever make from Tesla. The tactics they have resorted to are disingenuous or outright false. I will address their underhanded attacks below. While this discussion focuses on Fremont, these same principles apply to every Tesla facility worldwide.
Safety First
The workplace issue that comes before any other is safety. If you do not have your health, then nothing else matters. Simply due to size and bad luck, there will always be some injuries in a company with over 30,000 employees, but our goal is simple: to have as close to zero injuries as possible and be the safest factory in the auto industry by far. The Tesla executive team and I are absolutely committed to this goal. That is why I was particularly troubled by the safety claim in last week’s blog post, which said: “A few months ago, six out of eight people in my work team were out on medical leave at the same time due to various work-related injuries. I hear the ergonomics are even more severe in other areas of the factory.”
Obviously, this cannot be true: if three quarters of his team suddenly went on medical leave, we would not be able to operate that part of the factory. Furthermore, if things were really even worse in other departments, that would mean something like 80% or more of the factory would be out on injury, production would drop to virtually nothing and the parking lot would be almost empty. As you know firsthand, we have the *opposite* problem – there is never enough room to park! In fact, we are working at top speed to build more parking. Also, hopefully our darn BART train station will open before all hell freezes over! After looking into this claim, not only was it untrue for this individual’s team, it was untrue for any of the hundreds of teams in the factory.
That said, reducing excess overtime and improving safety are extremely important. This is why we hired thousands of additional team members to create a third shift, which has reduced the burden on everyone. Moreover, since the beginning of Tesla production at Fremont five years ago, there have been dedicated health and safety experts covering the factory and we hold regular safety meetings with operations leaders. Since the majority of the injuries in the factory are ergonomic in nature, we have an ergonomics department focused exclusively on this issue. The net result is that since January 1st, our total recordable incident rate (TRIR) is under 3.3, which is less than half the industry average of 6.7.
Of course, the goal is to have as close to zero injuries as humanly possible, so we need to keep improving. If you have a safety concern or an idea on how to make things better, please let your manager, safety representative or HR partner know. You can also send an anonymous note through the Integrity Hotline (it applies broadly to any problems you notice at our company) or you can email [email protected].
Compensation
At Tesla, we believe it is important for everyone to be an owner of the company. This is your company. That is why, unlike other car companies, everyone is awarded shares and you get to buy stock at a discount compared to the public through the employee stock purchase program. Last year, stock equity grants were increased significantly and it will happen again later this year once Model 3 achieves high volume.
The chart below contrasts the total comp received by a Tesla production team member who started on January 1, 2013 against the total comp received over the same period at GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler (FCA). A four year period is used because that’s the vesting length of a new hire equity grant. I believe the equity gain over the next four years will be similar. As shown below, a Tesla team member earned between $70,000 and $100,000 more in total compensation than the employees at other US auto companies!
Work Hours
Another issue raised in the UAW blog was hours worked. First, I want to recognize how hard you worked to make our company successful. Those hours mattered to you, to your family and to our company, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them. However, the pace needs to be sustainable. This is why the third shift was established and why we created alternate work schedules based on feedback from various teams in the factory.
These changes have had a big impact. The average amount of hours worked by production team members this year is about 43 hours per week. The percentage of overtime hours has declined by almost 50% since the super tough time we had last year achieving rate on the Model X, which is probably the hardest car to build in history. What an amazing accomplishment! It is also a lesson learned, which is why Model 3 is designed to be dramatically easier to manufacture.
Fun
As we get closer to being a profitable company, we will be able to afford more and more fun things. For example, as I mentioned at the last company talk, we are going to hold a really amazing party once Model 3 reaches volume production later this year. There will also be little things that come along like free frozen yogurt stands scattered around the factory and my personal favorite: a Tesla electric pod car roller coaster (with an optional loop the loop route, of course!) that will allow fast and fun travel throughout our Fremont campus, dipping in and out of the factory and connecting all the parking lots. It’s going to get crazy good
Thanks again for all your effort and I look forward to working alongside you to create an amazing future!
Elon
Here’s the email in full sent late last night to all Tesla employees:
For Tesla to become and remain one of the great companies of the 21st century, we must have an environment that is as safe, fair and fun as possible. It is incredibly important to me that you look forward to coming to work every day. For that, we must be a fair and just company – the only kind worth creating. This is vital to succeed in our mission to accelerate the advent of a clean, sustainable energy future. The forces arrayed against us are many and incredibly powerful. This is David vs Goliath if David were six inches tall! Only by being smarter, faster and working well as a tightly integrated team do we have any chance of success. We should never forget the history of car startups originating in the United States: dozens have gone bankrupt and only two, Tesla and Ford, have not. Despite the odds being strongly against us, my faith in you is why I am confident that we will succeed.
That is why I was so distraught when I read the recent blog post promoting the UAW, which does not share our mission and whose true allegiance is to the giant car companies, where the money they take from employees in dues is vastly more than they could ever make from Tesla. The tactics they have resorted to are disingenuous or outright false. I will address their underhanded attacks below. While this discussion focuses on Fremont, these same principles apply to every Tesla facility worldwide.
Safety First
The workplace issue that comes before any other is safety. If you do not have your health, then nothing else matters. Simply due to size and bad luck, there will always be some injuries in a company with over 30,000 employees, but our goal is simple: to have as close to zero injuries as possible and be the safest factory in the auto industry by far. The Tesla executive team and I are absolutely committed to this goal. That is why I was particularly troubled by the safety claim in last week’s blog post, which said: “A few months ago, six out of eight people in my work team were out on medical leave at the same time due to various work-related injuries. I hear the ergonomics are even more severe in other areas of the factory.”
Obviously, this cannot be true: if three quarters of his team suddenly went on medical leave, we would not be able to operate that part of the factory. Furthermore, if things were really even worse in other departments, that would mean something like 80% or more of the factory would be out on injury, production would drop to virtually nothing and the parking lot would be almost empty. As you know firsthand, we have the *opposite* problem – there is never enough room to park! In fact, we are working at top speed to build more parking. Also, hopefully our darn BART train station will open before all hell freezes over! After looking into this claim, not only was it untrue for this individual’s team, it was untrue for any of the hundreds of teams in the factory.
That said, reducing excess overtime and improving safety are extremely important. This is why we hired thousands of additional team members to create a third shift, which has reduced the burden on everyone. Moreover, since the beginning of Tesla production at Fremont five years ago, there have been dedicated health and safety experts covering the factory and we hold regular safety meetings with operations leaders. Since the majority of the injuries in the factory are ergonomic in nature, we have an ergonomics department focused exclusively on this issue. The net result is that since January 1st, our total recordable incident rate (TRIR) is under 3.3, which is less than half the industry average of 6.7.
Of course, the goal is to have as close to zero injuries as humanly possible, so we need to keep improving. If you have a safety concern or an idea on how to make things better, please let your manager, safety representative or HR partner know. You can also send an anonymous note through the Integrity Hotline (it applies broadly to any problems you notice at our company) or you can email [email protected].
Compensation
At Tesla, we believe it is important for everyone to be an owner of the company. This is your company. That is why, unlike other car companies, everyone is awarded shares and you get to buy stock at a discount compared to the public through the employee stock purchase program. Last year, stock equity grants were increased significantly and it will happen again later this year once Model 3 achieves high volume.
The chart below contrasts the total comp received by a Tesla production team member who started on January 1, 2013 against the total comp received over the same period at GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler (FCA). A four year period is used because that’s the vesting length of a new hire equity grant. I believe the equity gain over the next four years will be similar. As shown below, a Tesla team member earned between $70,000 and $100,000 more in total compensation than the employees at other US auto companies!
Work Hours
Another issue raised in the UAW blog was hours worked. First, I want to recognize how hard you worked to make our company successful. Those hours mattered to you, to your family and to our company, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them. However, the pace needs to be sustainable. This is why the third shift was established and why we created alternate work schedules based on feedback from various teams in the factory.
These changes have had a big impact. The average amount of hours worked by production team members this year is about 43 hours per week. The percentage of overtime hours has declined by almost 50% since the super tough time we had last year achieving rate on the Model X, which is probably the hardest car to build in history. What an amazing accomplishment! It is also a lesson learned, which is why Model 3 is designed to be dramatically easier to manufacture.
Fun
As we get closer to being a profitable company, we will be able to afford more and more fun things. For example, as I mentioned at the last company talk, we are going to hold a really amazing party once Model 3 reaches volume production later this year. There will also be little things that come along like free frozen yogurt stands scattered around the factory and my personal favorite: a Tesla electric pod car roller coaster (with an optional loop the loop route, of course!) that will allow fast and fun travel throughout our Fremont campus, dipping in and out of the factory and connecting all the parking lots. It’s going to get crazy good
Thanks again for all your effort and I look forward to working alongside you to create an amazing future!
Elon
mmd
Active Member
brucet999
Active Member
Re: Elon's email to employees;
There may be competing fact twisting going on here.
The employee's claim that "6 out of 8 of his team members were out on medical leave at the same time" was meant to imply that Tesla was the cause. I know many people who have been laid low by a flu epidemic in California over the past several months and others who had bad colds. These would have been included under medical leave the same as any workplace injuries. Were some of those people just sick, or were all of them workplace injuries? How many of those medical absences occurred on Friday or Monday, or November 23 or December 23?
Elon, on the other hand, says "since January 1st, our total recordable incident rate (TRIR) is under 3.3, which is less than half the industry average of 6.7." Why just since January 1st, rather than for the past quarter? Was it higher before then? The complaining employee alleged that team members worked while injured because they were afraid to report injuries. If that were true, then the TRIR would have been lower than it should have been.
I thought Elon's layout of total compensation was very well done. I've never heard of a company vesting employees in stock plans and such in just 4 years. Of course, due to the higher cost of living, the same compensation paid in Fremont, CA is effectively lower than in Michigan, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, or Ontario; but there is an intangible benefit of California weather. On the other hand, Tesla has to contend with a cost of doing business in CA that is much higher than in most other states.
There may be competing fact twisting going on here.
The employee's claim that "6 out of 8 of his team members were out on medical leave at the same time" was meant to imply that Tesla was the cause. I know many people who have been laid low by a flu epidemic in California over the past several months and others who had bad colds. These would have been included under medical leave the same as any workplace injuries. Were some of those people just sick, or were all of them workplace injuries? How many of those medical absences occurred on Friday or Monday, or November 23 or December 23?
Elon, on the other hand, says "since January 1st, our total recordable incident rate (TRIR) is under 3.3, which is less than half the industry average of 6.7." Why just since January 1st, rather than for the past quarter? Was it higher before then? The complaining employee alleged that team members worked while injured because they were afraid to report injuries. If that were true, then the TRIR would have been lower than it should have been.
I thought Elon's layout of total compensation was very well done. I've never heard of a company vesting employees in stock plans and such in just 4 years. Of course, due to the higher cost of living, the same compensation paid in Fremont, CA is effectively lower than in Michigan, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, or Ontario; but there is an intangible benefit of California weather. On the other hand, Tesla has to contend with a cost of doing business in CA that is much higher than in most other states.
mmd
Active Member
That's a very small window to compare to industry average that includes all times. I think, most of the overtime, and so most injuries, happen during the end of the quarter rush.
Caveat: No expert, just my common sense hunch.
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