In the wake of a union push that began to pick up steam this week, Tesla Workers United working with the company’s Autopilot function at Tesla’s Buffalo Gigafactory are claiming that they were fired by the Elon Musk-owned company in retaliation for their unionization efforts.
Bloomberg says that the complaint was made by Tesla Workers United in a filing with the United States National Labour Relations Board. The fledgling union claims that dozens of its members were fired in retaliation by the company for the collective effort to push for better pay and job security.
“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. These firings are the exact reason why we need a union @tesla,” the union tweeted this morning. “We believe we can do this, but more importantly we believe we WILL do this.”
🚨🚨🚨DOZENS OF EMPLOYEES FIRED DAY AFTER UNION CAMPAIGN LAUNCH. 🚨🚨🚨 https://t.co/T1DNv03Uzi
— TeslaWorkersUnited (@united_tesla) February 16, 2023
On Tuesday, Buffalo’s Tesla Workers United formally announced their unionization efforts in a letter to management and CEO/owner Elon Musk. The employees at Buffalo’s Gigafactory work on Tesla’s Autopilot project, and told Bloomberg earlier this week that the company actively tracks keystrokes to gauge how long employees spend on various work tasks, which some employees claim prevents them from taking bathroom breaks.
The Buffalo Gigafactory reportedly has 800 Autopilot analysts that identify objects and images from vehicle cameras, which helps the software recognise obstacles on the road. Pay starts at $US19 ($26) per hour according to Bloomberg, but the workers feel pressured to work as much and as fast as they can, which they hope the union can curb.
Tesla Workers United and Tesla did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment.