Tesla broke US labor law with anti-union efforts – watchdog
- Reference: 1616790493
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/26/tesla_labor_law/
- Source link:
In [1]a ruling issued on Thursday, the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded that Tesla violated federal labor law in its efforts to discourage workers from unionizing. It directed the company to cease various anti-union actions and policies like claiming workers would lose benefits if they vote for union representation.
[2]
The NLRB found that Tesla violated labor law by coercively interrogating employees, threatening them with the loss of stock options if they supported unionization, and enacting unlawful policies like a confidentiality agreement that banned speaking to the press.
Super Cali health inspectors: Tesla blood awoke us [3]READ MORE
[4]
The ruling directs the vehicle maker to offer to rehire plaintiff and former employee Richard Ortiz and pay him lost wages, and to strike unlawful disciplinary information from the record of both Ortiz and another employee, Jose Moran.
It further requires Tesla to rescind portions of its 2016 confidentiality agreement that disallow lawful union-related activity under [5]Sections 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act, which the NLRB acknowledged "protects employees when they speak with the media about working conditions, labor disputes, or other terms and conditions of employment."
The decision also directs self-styled " [6]Technoking " Musk to delete a May 20, 2018, tweet because it implies workers must give up their stock options if they unionize.
Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [7]May 21, 2018
"By tweeting on the @elonmusk Twitter account that the Respondent’s employees would lose their stock options if they chose the Union as their representative, Musk unlawfully threatened the Respondent’s employees in a manner viewable by the public without any limitations," the ruling says.
Finally, the NLRB is requiring Tesla to post a notice at its Fremont, Calif., facility explaining that workers have the right to organize under the law and stating that the company will not enact rules that interfere with protected union activity.
The case began in 2017 following a complaint filed by the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), which encouraged Tesla workers to vote to unionize.
This is a great victory for workers who have the courage to stand up and organize in a system that is currently stacked heavily in favor of employers
"This is a great victory for workers who have the courage to stand up and organize in a system that is currently stacked heavily in favor of employers like Tesla who have no qualms about violating the law," said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, in [8]a statement .
"While we celebrate the justice in today’s ruling, it nevertheless highlights the substantial flaws in US labor law. Here is a company that clearly broke the law and yet it is three years down the road before these workers achieved a modicum of justice."
NLRB rulings can be challenged in court. Tesla had not said whether it intends to do so; the company did not respond to a request for comment.
[9]
This is not the first time Tesla's leader has run into legal trouble for statements made on Twitter. In 2018, the SEC filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Musk for a tweet about Telsa's share price, which he [10]subsequently settled . The following year, Musk [11]was acquitted in a defamation lawsuit over 2018 his tweet calling British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth a "pedo guy." ®
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[1] https://www.nlrb.gov/case/32-CA-197020
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YF5noNA2YUu8gMQq9b92BwAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/04/18/super_cali_investigators_tesla_blood_awoke_us/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YF5noNA2YUu8gMQq9b92BwAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/interfering-with-employee-rights-section-7-8a1
[6] https://sec.report/Document/0001564590-21-012981/
[7] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/998454539941367808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[8] https://uaw.org/statement-uaw-vice-president-cindy-estrada-director-uaw-organizing-department-nlrb-tesla-decision/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YF5noNA2YUu8gMQq9b92BwAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/27/sec_musk_tweet/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/07/elon_musk_defamation/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Well he created the need for a workers union.
He did for ceworkers without providing for any protections for COVID-19 and insisting it was just another day at work, whilst becoming even richer.
His tweets itself show he will threaten.
He is a terrible egomanic - from the crypto stuff to get back at the SEC, the paedo stuff because someone else got the limelight.
The guy seems disturbed and constantly throwing up tantrums. I wonder what he will do to retaliate with the NLRB.
Tesla cars apparently have the lowest reliability and worst build quality of all vehicles in its class and/or price bracket. So he isn't even doing a very good job, other than priming the twitterverse for his stocks on Robinhood.
LMAO papa elon shellshocked, him and the operations/warehouse managers for Amazon must be in a war room furiously channeling early Walmart anti-union video efforts
I Dreamed I Saw El Musk Last Night. Alive As You Or Me
Why do any employees need Unions [ which were indeed necessary centuries ago --- pious rolling of eyes --- but now all the demands of those 19th century workers have been fully met, and we have those government regulations to ensure good practice ( because bosses sheerly love government regulations ) ] when they can rely on the benevolence of the masters to see them right ?
Who is the most disgusting?
Who is the most disgusting super-rich "tech villain"? The reconverted Gates, the tanned Larry or this awful awful "newcomer"?
Re: Who is the most disgusting?
Almost all of them are. A poke in the side of a reminder for those who believe:
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
If you think a rich person ever thinks about anything but themselves, or any benefits beyond what it does for themselves, then you are world-class naive.
Punishment
"The decision also directs self-styled "Technoking" Musk to delete a May 20, 2018, tweet because it implies workers must give up their stock options if they unionize."
They want Elon to delete that wrongheaded (and illegal) posting? Why? It' seems far more appropriate to have the tweet tattooed on Musk's forehead and forbid him from having it removed for some reasonable time interval -- five years perhaps.
Brotherhood of Evil villain henchmen Local 102
We demand:
Casual jumpsuit fridays
Safety rails around shark tank
Sick days in the event of a James Bond attack