INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tesla broke national labor laws when it unfairly prevented workers from unionizing, an administrative law judge in California ruled
Friday.
The ruling, which will likely be appealed, was first reported by Bloomberg
Tesla has not responded to a request for comment
TechCrunch will update the article if Tesla responds.
The automaker and CEO Elon Musk were ordered by Judge Amita Baman Tracy to take
several actions to remedy the violations, including reinstating and giving backpay to a fired pro-union employee
The judge also ordered Musk to hold a public meeting and read aloud the findings to employees at the factory informing them the NLRB
concluded the company had broken the law.
From the ruling:
I recommend that Respondent be ordered to convene its employees and have Elon
Musk (or, if he is no longer the chief executive officer, a high-ranking management official), in the presence security guards, managers and
supervisors, a Board agent and an agent 15 of the Union, if the Region and/or the Union so desire, read the notice aloud to employees, or,
at Respondent option, permit a Board agent, in the presence Musk, to read the notice to the employees at the Fremont facility only.
The
NLRB, while able to determine Tesla violated the law, has a limited reach, Bloomberg noted
The NLRB, for instance, can''t hold executive personally liable, nor can it assess punitive damages.
The ruling, which was published Friday,
found that Musk and Tesla had violated the National Labor Relations Act by repressing attempts to organize a union at the company Fremont
The judge determined that Tesla violated labor laws when it created rules that prevented off-duty employees from distributing union
organizing leaflets in the Fremont parking lot, fired two workers unfairly and interrogated employees about their union activities
The judge also determined that Musk own tweets violated the law when he implied that workers who unionized would have to give up
company-paid stock options.
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.
mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018
