According to a blog post on the site Medium, Tesla's electric car factory in Fremont, Calif., is guilty of forcing its more than 5,000 employees to work excessive mandatory overtime in unsafe conditions, and for $4 to $8/hr less than the national average for an auto worker. Because of these conditions, the workers have reached out to the United Auto Workers.
Entitled "Time for Tesla to Listen," the treatise on mistreatment was written by Jose Moran, who according to his LinkedIn profile, has been an Underbody Team Lead at the Fremont factory for the last 4½ years.
Screengrab: Tesla
Moran qualified his post by stating he is "proud to be part of the team bringing green cars to the masses," and then unfurled a massive list of grievances that included:
- Preventable injuries occurring due to ergonomically incompatible machinery
- Shortage of manpower and excessive mandatory overtime
- Hourly wages of $17-21 that are lower than the $25.58 national average and the $28 living wage in Alameda County recommended for one adult and child
- Signing a confidentiality agreement that "threatens consequences if we exercise our right to speak out about wages and working conditions"
Because of these actions, the workers have reached out to the UAW for support.
"We 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," Moran writes. "The issues go much deeper than just fair pay. Injuries, poor morale, unfair promotions, high turnover, and other issues aren’t just bad for workers — they also impact the quality and speed of production. They can’t be resolved without workers having a voice and being included in the process."
It turns out Tesla was listening, and founder Elon Musk says this particular voice is not to be trusted.
“Our understanding is that this guy was paid by the UAW to join Tesla and agitate for a union. He doesn’t really work for us, he works for the UAW,” responded Musk via Twitter direct message to Gizmodo.
He wrote in a separate DM:
super villains and unions leaves hardly any time for significant others.
Screengrab: Marvel Studios
And according to pretentious motivational posters everywhere, being the best takes dedication and sacrifice.
Tesla did raise workers' base salary in November and Musk says overtime hours are going down, so this could be one of those inevitable hiccups when a company is rolling out a new product.
But if Tesla is failing to keep its workers safe, that's a completely different issue.
"I hear that ergonomics concerns in other departments are even more severe," Moran writes. "Worst of all, I hear coworkers quietly say that they are hurting but they are too afraid to report it for fear of being labeled as a complainer or bad worker by management."
The best response Musk can have now is to investigate these claims and if found to be true, take a few minutes to implement a new ergonomics program to protect workers' from repetitive task injuries. After all, the future of Tesla is riding on these workers backs.
