The employees at Tesla’s electric car factory in Grünheide have elected a new works council. Company boss Elon Musk is likely to be displeased with the fact that IG Metall is now the largest group.
The IG Metall union will in future be represented on the works council of the German Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin. After the first count, the union list won 16 of a total of 39 positions on the works council, IG Metall announced yesterday. This makes it the largest group in the employee representation for a good 12,000 employees at the US car manufacturer. This could now give new weight to their central demand for a collective agreement.
Musk against unions and collective bargaining agreements
Elon Musk probably won’t like that, as he makes no secret of his contempt for unions. Musk specifically keeps unions out of his operations in the USA. His factory manager in Grünheide, André Thierig, also believes that a collective agreement is not necessary. Instead, Thierig announced annual wage adjustments during Musk’s recent visit to Grünheide.
According to Tesla and the union, there was great interest in the three-day works council election and there were queues. According to IG Metall, nine lists with 234 candidates took part.
Previous Chairwoman of the works council controversial
Among them was the previous works council chairwoman Michaela Schmitz, who ran again with her own list. She had spoken out against “external influences” from the union and collective agreements.
IG Metall had criticized that the previous works council was too much under the influence of management and not completely on the side of the workforce. Schmitz had rejected this and pointed to the wage increases, social benefits and improvements in occupational safety that had been achieved so far.
After the election, IG Metall district manager Dirk Schulze congratulated the elected union members. The IG Metall list started with demands for more hiring, the taking on of temporary workers, better health protection, longer breaks on the assembly line and more vacation. The metal workers demand that all of this should be clarified in a legally secure manner in a collective agreement between IG Metall and Tesla.
Criticism of the circumstances of the election in advance
There had been a dispute in advance about the Tesla works council election. The union demanded more time for preparation, and the Frankfurt (Oder) labor court stopped the election in February at the request of IG Metall. But the Berlin-Brandenburg State Labor Court ruled in favor of Tesla and the electoral board, meaning the election could take place in March as planned.
The first works council election at the US electric car manufacturer on February 28, 2022 – before the plant opened – was also met with criticism. IG Metall accused Tesla of “trickery”: If the election date had been scheduled just one day later, more of the currently employed employees from production or the paint shop would have been able to take part.