Tesla CEO Elon Musk invites United Auto Workers (UAW), the union for the American auto industry, to come and hold a vote at Tesla. That’s interesting, because Tesla employees are not unionized until now.
It all seems a bit uninteresting and local news, but in our view this invitation to vote has some relevance. Musk was previously outraged that President Biden completely ignored Tesla in the State of the Union address when it came to electric cars. Biden praised Ford and GM’s $18 billion investment in EVs, but completely ignored the fact that the American Tesla is investing more than twice as much as the two traditional giants combined.
The ‘why’ of this ignoring is conjecture, but it is suspected that this is because Tesla employees are not affiliated with a ‘union’. They would have a firm hand in what Biden has to say in this area. Tesla now indicates through Musk that no one will stop the UAW if a vote is organized. Such a vote determines whether the employees actually join the union. Reuters explains that a vote like this usually takes place when at least 30 percent of employees request it in a petition.
Incidentally, Musk’s invitation is not only a response to Biden, but according to Musk also a way to keep his employees (satisfied). “In the Bay Area (around San Francisco, ed.) there is negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat our (great) employees well, they could just leave,” he tweeted. Tesla’s headquarters has since moved to Texas, but the ‘Gigafactory’ in Fremont, California, will continue to exist and may even be expanded.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl