Union behind Starbucks unionization now at Tesla
A wave of union organizing that helped revitalize the American labor movement began in a Starbucks in Buffalo, NY, when baristas formed the coffee company’s first union in December 2021.
Now, the same union that helped those Starbucks workers is helping Tesla workers form the electric-car maker’s first U.S. union at a factory just six miles away, Bloomberg reports.
More than two dozen workers sent a letter to Tesla management early Tuesday, saying the union wanted to strengthen the company and fight for better working conditions, job security and pay. In a note shared on Twitterthe future union, called Tesla Workers United, said it was working with Workers United Upstate New York.
“We want Tesla to be the company we know,” the petition reads. “We believe that with one union we will advance the mission of sustainability and foster a progressive environment for all of us.”
The Buffalo factory has about 2,000 employees, about 800 of whom work for the company’s Autopilot division, the technology that allows Tesla’s cars to maneuver automatically. The rest of the workers are therefore employed in manufacturing or in other functions Wall Street Journal.
The announcement that Tesla workers are attempting to unionize comes after a series of union efforts shaped the US labor movement in 2021 and 2022. Companies like Apple, Amazon and Starbucks have long operated without unions, but in the last year union organizers have clinched big gains by successfully holding union elections and pushing for changes in working conditions. Nonetheless, union membership, as measured by the percentage of unionized wage earners, has fallen sharply over the past year.
Since December 2021, when Starbucks workers first organized in Buffalo, more than 250 additional stores have voted to unionize. The company has taken an uncompromising stance towards its unions. Starbucks has yet to approve or sign contracts with its unions, although it has said it is open to discussion. As executives push back and negotiations stall, union efforts at the world’s largest coffeehouse chain have slowed in recent months with a slower pace of contract negotiations.
Unions are rife in the auto industry compared to companies like Starbucks and Apple. Long-established auto industry giants like Ford, Mercedes Benz and General Motors have unions in the US and elsewhere in the world.
Tesla, unlike its predecessors, does not have a unionized workforce in the US. The National Labor Relations Board ruled in 2021 that Musk violated labor laws by firing a union activist at Tesla, and the NLRB asked him to remove a 2018 tweet advising against unions (the tweet is still online). Musk then invited auto union workers to vote on possible unionization at Tesla, saying the company would “do nothing to stop them.” diary reported.
In 2022, Tesla laid off about 200 employees at the company’s San Mateo, California facility. Musk, who has also been Twitter’s CEO since last October, was recently acquitted of charges in a class action lawsuit he was facing after tweeting that he had secured funding to take the automaker back in 2018.
The Tesla Workers Union did not return immediately Assets Request for comments. Tesla didn’t answer Assets Consultation requested – the company’s PR department was dissolved in 2020.
Learn how to navigate and build trust in your organization with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter exploring what leaders need to succeed. Login here.
