• News

New York Tesla employees campaign to form union

If successfully formed, Tesla Workers United would be the first union within the company.

TJ Denzer

February 14, 2023 4:10 PM

Image via Tesla

1

Tesla employees in New York are pushing to organize a union as of this week. The company’s New York employees have moved to campaign for a union with the help of Workers United Upstate New York. If the group is successful in forming and holding a vote, it would officialize Tesla Workers United, the first union to have formed at the company. However, the group may find contention with CEO Elon Musk, who has a history of public anti-union sentiments.

The Tesla Workers United group announced its campaign to form a union on its official Twitter page on February 14, 2023. The group wants to form an environment of sustainable and safe practices to look after its workers as it leads the industry of electric vehicles:

“We believe that by having a union at Tesla, we will further the mission of sustainability and foster a progressive environment for us all,” Tesla Workers United shared in its statement. “Unionizing will further accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, because it will give us a voice in our workplace and in the goals we set for ourselves to accomplish… we strongly believe that sustainability starts with us.”

The campaign to unionize at Tesla is not the first time employee organization has come up within the company. Previously, Tesla faced another union vote in July 2022. Tesla’s board strongly encouraged its shareholders to vote against employee formation of unions at the company. There’s also Musk himself to contend with, having a history of anti-union rhetoric up to and including being forced by the US National Labor Relations Board to delete tweets threatening union organization at the company, as well as reinstating a pro-union employee that was allegedly fired without cause.

Nonetheless, the New York Tesla Workers United campaign seems to be underway. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for new developments.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.