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Tesla terminated at least 18 employees who had been involved in an effort to unionize the company’s Buffalo factory, according to a complaint filed Wednesday by organizers to the National Labor Relations Board.
The employees, who had been involved in the company’s autopilot technology, had announced their intention to unionize just a day before. They are affiliated with Workers United, a branch of the Service Employees International Union.
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.”
In a tweet, the union 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.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
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.
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