Tesla Fired Buffalo Workers Seeking to Organize, Union Says

Tesla fired at least 18 employees, including several leaders of a unionization campaign, a day after they announced plans to organize a Tesla plant in Buffalo, workers said in a filing to the National Labor Relations Board.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has been blunt in his opposition to unions, and the company has a reputation for using hardball tactics against union organizers.

“I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement, and it’s shameful,” Arian Berek, a member of the Buffalo organizing committee, said in a statement. Ms. Berek said she was fired after returning to work after a bout with Covid-19 and bereavement leave.

The Rochester branch of the Workers United union, in a “charge against employer” dated Wednesday, told the labor relations board that it sought an injunction to block the firings, which it called unlawful. Tesla “terminated these individuals in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity,” the filing said. The firings were reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/business/tesla-buffalo-union.html