Tesla Workers United address concerns with the company
The employees at Buffalo's Tesla Gigafactory were fired earlier this week. Workers are speaking out and today Tesla Workers United held a press conference to address their concerns with the company. To on your size, Daniel Church joins us now in studio with more on those concerns. Danielle. Claudine Tesla says those employees were fired because of low performance, but the employees say the company did it in retaliation of those wanting to unionize. There is no future without having workers' needs met. Al Celi is on the organizing committee Tesla Workers United and also works in the autopilot department at Tesla.
That's the department that started chatting about unionizing in an online work channel that also included managers after the November snowstorm. Though there were travel bans in place, employees say they were only given two options. Is there PTO or not get paid at all? It feels sour to have to use that or not get paid at all, especially when you work for a company like Tesla that is as lucrative and profitable as it is. We voiced some concerns over policies that surrounded these snowstorms and essentially that led also to people openly talking about wanting a union at Tesla. Shortly after that, our channel was shut down. Celi says most of the employees in the chat room were the ones who were fired earlier this week, including one worker who was organizing with Tesla Workers United. Tesla posted this lengthy statement to its website saying all of the allegations are false.
Part of it says employees who had a low performance review were identified on February 3, 10 days before the company claims it became aware of the union campaign. Tesla Workers United has asked the National Labor Relations Board to file a federal court injunction to bring back those fired employees. Six or seven board agents cleared their schedules yesterday to take affidavits from the fired workers. They did 14 affidavits in one day, which is pretty unprecedented. Job security is part of the very reason Tesla Gigafactory employees want a union. New York is an at-will state, meaning they can be fired for any reason. I don't know what I would do if I lost my job right now.
They also want better pay. I am living damn near paycheck to paycheck and it's not a fun way to live. Promises kept and management issues resolved. It's not a bad place to be. It's not a bad place to work, but that doesn't mean it can't be better. In Tesla's statement, the company says performance reviews are done every six months. Employees receive a rating from one to five.
It goes on to say, quote, in the worst case, if an employee fails to meet their performance expectations, they will be let go. You can read the full statement on WGRC.com. Danielle Church, Channel 2 News.
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