Tesla says Workers United is wrong and denies the accusations. It claims it laid off 27 New Yorkers because of 'poor performance', before it discovered about unionization efforts.

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Tesla announced that it had laid off 27 employees in Buffalo (New York) due to poor performance.
Tesla denied that it laid off workers as a result of a unionization campaign.
A NLRB complaint alleged that Tesla fired employees in retaliation for their unionizing efforts.

Tesla refuted the claim that it laid off many employees at its Buffalo plant, New York, in an effort to discourage unionization. Instead, Tesla stated that the employees were laid-off due to poor performance.

Electric vehicle manufacturer also reacted to what it called a false allegation.

Tesla stated in a blog post on Thursday that employees who were let go as part this review received feedback from their managers about their poor performance over the review period. It added that "despite feedback, they failed to demonstrate sufficient improvement."

Tesla stated in the post that it had fired 4% (or 27) of the 675 employees who were part of the Autopilot labeling group in Buffalo because they failed to perform well after a six-monthly global performance review. According to the post, the last cycle ran from July 2022 to December 2022. Managers were informed December 13 that the low performers would be leaving the job starting the week of February 12th.

Austin-based EV maker Tesla stated that it had identified workers who would be laid off February 3, "well before" the union campaign was launched. Tesla said that it became aware of organizing activities about 10 days later. It said that only one of the 27 affected employees was associated with the union.

Bloomberg reported that the dispute began after Workers United filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that Tesla had unlawfully fired some employees "in retaliation" for union activity. According to the union, some of those laid off were involved in negotiations for unionization.

Insider was informed Thursday by the NLRB that a complaint had been filed and that the regional office of the agency is conducting an investigation.

Bloomberg reported that workers at Tesla's Buffalo plant had sent an email to CEO Elon Musk Tuesday informing him about their plans to unionize. According to employees, they wanted better wages, work conditions, and security. They also said that Tesla had kept track of their keystrokes and productivity, so that some workers didn't need to use the bathroom.

Tesla also addressed this allegation by stating that it was monitoring how long it takes to label images in order to "improve our labeling software's ease-of-use."

"Since its sole purpose is to determine how long it takes for an image to be labeled, there is no benefit to delaying bathroom breaks. Tesla stated that Tesla does not pressure employees to do this.

Tesla, Workers United and the NLRB didn't immediately respond to Insider requests for comment that were sent after regular business hours.

This isn’t the first time Tesla has found himself in a conflict with a union. The NLRB ruled that Tesla had repeatedly broken labor laws, trying to stop workers from unionizing or discussing working conditions.

Business Insider has the original article.

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By: htan@insider.com (Huileng Tan)
Title: Tesla denies Workers United’s accusations, saying it laid off 27 workers in New York for ‘poor performance’ before it learned of unionization efforts
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/tesla-laid-off-new-york-workers-poor-performance-union-campaign-2023-2
Published Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:48:58 +0000

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