Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, has denied allegations that it fired employees in New York State who tried to form a union. The electric car manufacturer claimed in a blog post that the decision to fire 27 employees for “poor performance” was made on February 3, at least ten days before the union campaign was made public.
The business also said that it was only later that they learned that one of the affected 27 workers was a “official” participant in the union plan.
Workers at the Tesla plant in Buffalo announced earlier this week that they intended to organize with Workers United Upstate New York. Employees at the Autopilot facility claimed that their jobs were terminated as a result of Musk receiving a letter outlining the union campaign and asking him to sign the Fair Election Principles, which would stop Tesla from threatening employees.
In a complaint to the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Workers United Upstate New York union claimed that Tesla was retaliating against union activity. According to the organizers, “over 30 workers” were fired, and a new rule prohibiting workplace meetings from being recorded without everyone’s consent was put into place.
The automaker announced on Wednesday that 4% of its 675-person Autopilot labeling team in Buffalo would be let go. Tesla claimed that despite receiving criticism for their performance, these employees had not demonstrated improvement. Employees receive ratings of 1 to 5 during each cycle of performance reviews, which are conducted every six months.
Non-performers will be let go, and managers were informed in December that they would have to leave as of February 12th, according to Tesla. The most recent cycle of performance reviews ran from July to December of 2022.
