Tesla employees at the company’s Buffalo, New York factory launched a campaign to unionize, according to an email sent to CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday (via Automotive News).
The email detailed demands such as better pay, increased job security and a decrease in overall production pressures that can be hazardous to worker health.
Six workers at the plant told Bloomberg that Tesla keeps track of employee keystrokes to measure the amount of time they take on each task, encouraging some to avoid taking breaks to use the restroom.
“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,” wrote employees in the letter to management.
Workers at the Buffalo plant are in charge of labeling data for Tesla’s Autopilot system, and the move to unionize represents the first of Musk’s labor forces to make such an attempt — despite past complaints of poor working conditions at multiple of the automaker’s factories.
Tesla’s New York plant currently has over 800 Autopilot analysts in non-engineering positions training Autopilot and the Full-Self Driving (FSD) beta, who are hired at starting wages of about $19 per hour, according to the union.
“People are tired of being treated like robots,” union organizing committee member Al Celli said.
These New York Tesla workers are working with Service Employees International Union affiliate, Workers United. The latter has helped unionize hundreds of Starbucks locations in the U.S. since December 2021. Aside from these Autopilot employees, the union noted it is also pushing to include the nearly 1,000 Tesla workers at the facility as well.
The news also comes amidst a growing labor movement at many U.S. companies, most notably including Amazon, Apple and Starbucks.
White House Seeks Elon Musk’s Help with Climate Target: Report https://t.co/HjvwnwOBhM
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) February 13, 2023
