{"id":113840,"date":"2017-02-10T12:55:44","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T17:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=113840"},"modified":"2017-02-10T12:55:44","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T17:55:44","slug":"uaw-gearing-up-for-organizing-battle-with-tesla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2017\/02\/uaw-gearing-up-for-organizing-battle-with-tesla\/","title":{"rendered":"UAW Gearing Up for Organizing Battle With Tesla"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
At least one Tesla employee believes the automaker's workers need UAW representation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tesla and the United Auto Workers union are scuffling over whether workers at the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont, California, need representation.<\/p>\n

The UAW has been eyeing the Tesla plant for several months and apparently has managed to gain a foothold where at least one Tesla employee has stepped forward to identify himself as a union supporter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Electrifying News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jose Moran, the pro-union employee, also has drawn the wrath of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who labeled him an employee of the United Auto Workers.<\/p>\n

The UAW, answering Musk\u2019s charges, said Moran approached the union and he is not, nor has he ever been a UAW employee.<\/p>\n

(Tesla idling California plant briefly to prep for Model 3 production. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Moran is not and has not been paid by the UAW. We would hope that Tesla would apologize to their employee, Mr. Moran, for spreading fake news about him. We can confirm that Mr. Moran and others at Tesla, have approached the UAW and we welcome them with open arms,\u201d the UAW said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tesla's Fremont, California, plant used to be a UAW stronghold when it was owned by GM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Fremont plant that is the used by Tesla as its major assembly point had been a union stronghold for decades when it was owned by General Motors and then by the GM-Toyota partnership, which dissolved during GM\u2019s bankruptcy in 2009.<\/p>\n

Tesla bought the plant after the bankruptcy and while the UAW closed its union hall in Fremont, a pro-union culture appears to have survived inside the sprawling factory where at least some workers also had been employed by GM.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to see more\u00a0about the feds clearing Tesla and Autopilot.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think our management team would agree that our plant doesn\u2019t function as well as it could, but until now they\u2019ve underestimated the value of listening to employees,\u201d Moran, who identifies himself as a worker for four years at the plant, wrote Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need better organization in the plant, and I, along with many of my coworkers, believe we can achieve that by coming together and forming a union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union drive crops up at a critical time in the automaker\u2019s development. Tesla is now preparing the factory, which now makes the Model S and X electric vehicles,\u00a0to begin producing the more affordable Model 3 sedan in July. Tesla, in filings with the SEC,\u00a0lists higher costs or work stoppages related to union activities as risks.<\/p>\n

(Tesla misses mark on deliveries.\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for details.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long history of engaging directly with our\u00a0employees on the issues that matter to them, and we will continue to do so\u00a0because it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla and the United Auto Workers union are scuffling over whether workers at the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont, California, need representation. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":113842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113840"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=113840"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=113840"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=113840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}