Elon Musk Calls UAW to Hold Union Vote at Tesla’s California Factory

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday he is inviting the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union to hold a vote at the company’s California factory.

Musk mentioned that the “real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!”

A screenshot of the tweet by Elon Musk

Musk tweeted in response to Gene Simmons, bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss. Simmons sided with Musk, who called out President Biden yesterday, for not including Tesla in his State of the Union address.

“The President doesn’t mention Tesla, perhaps because Tesla is non-union and moved to Texas, a “right to work” state. Give Elon Musk/Tesla its due. They are game changers and should be heralded.”, said Simmons.

A screenshot of the tweet by Gene Simmons

Musk responded to his tweet shortly after, stating that Tesla factory workers received the highest compensation in the auto industry and attached a link to an interview of GM CEO Mary Barra, where the interviewer, Andrew Sorkin, mentions the fact.

Elon Musk’s decision to invite the UAW to Tesla comes three months after he criticized the Biden administration for a proposal that gave union-made electric vehicles an extra $4,500 tax incentive. Unionizing Tesla would be a significant success for the UAW, and as of writing, they have not yet responded to the entrepreneur’s invitation. 

Tesla isn’t the only American EV manufacturer that isn’t unionized. Workers at Rivian’s plant in Normal, Illinois, are not unionized either, and the company is yet to comment on the current situation, following Musk’s tweet.

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Other prominent American companies such as Amazon and Apple and more also do not have union labor in the USA.