It would be a first for Elon Musk's electric car company if a group of Tesla employees in New York succeeded in forming a union.
They have written to the company outlining their plans and requesting that the leaders accept the ground rules for a "fair" union election.
The effort has received no public response from Mr. Musk, who has previously opposed organizing efforts at his company.
According to the organizers, the Buffalo plant employs 2,000 people.
Workers United, the union that assisted in sparking Starbucks' recent wave of unionization, is supporting the cause.
The Buffalo employees stated in a press release that they were organizing a union with Workers United Upstate New York in order to create an environment that was even more collaborative and would strengthen the business.
The organizing committee, according to the campaign, is made up of a number of the roughly 800 analysts who are based in Buffalo and work on Tesla's autopilot systems.
They hope to work together with others at the facility, including those who make solar panels and batteries and work in call centers.
The workers are reportedly gathering support signatures for a union election and have been quietly working on the effort for months.
They must show support from at least 30% of workers for a vote in order to hold an election. Tesla will be forced to engage in pay and condition negotiations with the workforce if they are successful.
In the US, labor organizing has increased recently, with major corporations like Apple, Starbucks, and Amazon among those facing campaigns.
But productive efforts are still uncommon.
Despite labor officials criticizing its tactics, Tesla has prevailed over other campaigns.
The National Labor Relations Board upheld a ruling that Tesla had illegally fired a worker in California in retaliation for his unionization efforts in 2021. Additionally, officials demanded that Mr. Musk take down a tweet in which he implied that giving up stock options in order to join a union would be a bad idea.
A competitive job market close to the Tesla factory in California, according to Mr. Musk last year, meant his business was able to pay and treat its employees well.
I'd like to hereby invite UAW to hold a union vote whenever it is most convenient for them, he continued. Tesla won't intervene to stop them.
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