The United Automobile Workers (UAW) union on Friday stated it had been approached by employees at Tesla Inc‘s Fremont, California, assembly plant, declining a charge by the chief executive of the luxury electric automaker that a worker who publicly slammed the company was on the UAW payroll.
The nascent move to organize at Tesla’s factory shines an undesirable spotlight on accusations of long hours, obligatory overtime and preventable injuries at a time when Tesla is speeding up production to fulfill enthusiastic targets.
The worker, 43-year-old Jose Moran, stated on Friday his goal was to unionize at the factory where he worked since 2012, often doing 12-hour days, six days a week.
“A great deal of workers believe we have a right for union representation and a right to represent ourselves and our own interest. We do not believe the company is doing that for us,” Moran told press reporters during a teleconference.
Previously in the day, the United Automobile Workers informed Moran had never been paid by the union.
“We can verify that Mr. Moran and others at Tesla have approached the UAW and we welcome them with open arms,” the union stated.
The Fremont factory was a UAW-represented operation sometime ago, owned by General Motors, however ended up being non-union when Tesla took control in 2010.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, told the website Gizmodo that Moran was “paid by the UAW to join Tesla and agitate for a union. He does not truly work for us, he works for the UAW.”
Moran said he had been praised by fellow factory workers since releasing a blog recently, mentioning avoidable injuries at the plant, compulsory overtime and workers being paid less than the auto industry average.
