Tesla has beaten back previous efforts by workers to unionize – but the United Auto Workers hopes a successful strike against Ford, General
New York CNN — Tesla has beaten back previous efforts by workers to unionize – but the United Auto Workers hopes a successful strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis could help it organize at Tesla. UAW membership has declined in recent decades, and the auto industry is moving to electric vehicles. EV battery and production plants thus far in the United States are mostly non-union. To grow, the UAW will have to make inroads at EV plants. “Tesla is the biggest threat in the long term to UAW wages and benefits. UAW doesn’t have any choice but to take on [Tesla],” said John Logan, a professor of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. Tesla controls around 60% of the electric vehicle market in the United States, and Detroit and foreign automakers in the South are racing to catch up. Tesla workers earn on average about $55 an hour in wages and benefits, compared to $66 to $71 an hour at Detroit’s Big Three, according to industry estimates. Workers have attempted to organize at Tesla at least three different times. But the company, led by Elon Musk, has been difficult for unions to break into because of weak protections for labor organizing in the United States; Tesla’s aggressive tactics; and Tesla’s strategy of granting factory workers stock options, a rarity in the auto industry. “Tesla will go to extraordinary lengths to prevent unions,” Logan said. Tesla did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
