Tesla Line Workers Could Unionize

Tesla Model S (Credit: Tesla Motors)

The United Auto Workers is targeting Tesla’s Fremont factory for unionizing the workers there. It’s the only American-owned assembly plant in the country that doesn’t have a union. That means soon enough Tesla could be navigating some of the same issues as its rivals.

How would unionized employees affect Tesla’s vehicle output? Different people view the issue different ways, depending on if they’re a fan of unions or not. One thing’s for sure, this is happening at a critical time for Tesla, which has a ton of Model 3 preorders to fulfill. The pressure’s building and everyone will be watching to see how the company handles the situation.

By 2018, Tesla wants the Fremont plant to be kicking out 500,000 vehicles a year. In 2015 50,000 cars rolled off the assembly line. That’s a huge upswing and UAW wants a piece of it. The organization also wants to make sure that workers are treated fairly as Tesla increases production.

In case you didn’t know, working for Tesla on the production line is a lot like working for any startup. Sometimes employees have to put in extra time. The company told Electrek that during especially heavy times, workers are required to come in six days a week.

According to a USA Today report, UAW isn’t going after Tesla at all. Instead, it sounds more like the two are playing nice, at least for now. Elon Musk has been pretty adept at navigating all kinds of challenges, so we’ll see how he handles this.