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Businesses United States

Tesla Broke US Labor Law With Anti-Union Efforts (theregister.com) 112

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: In a ruling issued on Thursday, the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded that Tesla violated federal labor law in its efforts to discourage workers from unionizing. It directed the company to cease various anti-union actions and policies like claiming workers would lose benefits if they vote for union representation. The NLRB found that Tesla violated labor law by coercively interrogating employees, threatening them with the loss of stock options if they supported unionization, and enacting unlawful policies like a confidentiality agreement that banned speaking to the press.

The ruling directs the vehicle maker to offer to rehire plaintiff and former employee Richard Ortiz and pay him lost wages, and to strike unlawful disciplinary information from the record of both Ortiz and another employee, Jose Moran. It further requires Tesla to rescind portions of its 2016 confidentiality agreement that disallow lawful union-related activity under Sections 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act, which the NLRB acknowledged "protects employees when they speak with the media about working conditions, labor disputes, or other terms and conditions of employment." The decision also directs self-styled "Technoking" Musk to delete a May 20, 2018, tweet because it implies workers must give up their stock options if they unionize. Finally, the NLRB is requiring Tesla to post a notice at its Fremont, Calif., facility explaining that workers have the right to organize under the law and stating that the company will not enact rules that interfere with protected union activity.

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Tesla Broke US Labor Law With Anti-Union Efforts

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  • Duh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @08:07AM (#61204800)

    Tesla violated union laws, OSHA laws, COIVD-lockdown laws, state dealership laws, state lemon laws, SEC regulations, UK autonomous vehicle laws, Chinese and EU laws about advertised but not delivered self-driving capabilties, and NHTSA regulations which required them to recall a large number of cars.

    Tesla is a pretty bad corporate actor. Even if you dislike dealerships and therefore want to start a fight over that one.

    • by cheekyboy ( 598084 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @08:27AM (#61204866) Homepage Journal

      GM spends 1 billion making a great EV that worked.
      There is great demand.
      Then kills the project, destroys every EV car they made for trials. (insane fuckshits)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      They did it to 'grab all EV talent' see how to compete with it, then kill it, so no competitor can start ever again.
      And to make sure no talent exists afterword, all hopes crushed.

      • EVs as we know them weren't possible without affordable Li-Ion batteries. Those didn't exist in the 1980s.

        • by hey! ( 33014 )

          NiMH was initially a more promising technology for electric vehicles, and in fact GM's second gen EV-1 witched from lead acid to NiMH, which upped its range from 55 miles to 105.

          What held back the adoption of NiMH for automotive applications was that large format NiMH batteries were encumbered by patents aquired by Chevron -- an oil company. They put potential licensees of the patents in a Catch-22 -- Chevron would only license the patent for high volume production, making it impossible to do smaller produ

          • The NiMH EV-1 in the 1980s required a 8-12 hour charge time and a charger the size of a gas pump, as well as the equivalent of a new car in installation costs. But yes, it had a reasonable range. It's possible they could have taken off as a commuter option from suburbs (with garages) to cities and back, but with a very high cost.

            • by hey! ( 33014 )

              The killer advantages of li-ion over NiMH is that lithium is lighter for given capacity, charges faster, and has less self-discharge. So I don't see many cars using them in ten years.

              But NiMH might very reasonably be used for storing solar power for nighttime use. It's cheaper, safer, and its disadvantages only have limited impact in that application.

              • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

                Back on topic.

                Tesla vehicles for the elite, workers need not apply, the backdoor only for you, the servants entrance, the non union labour only service entrance. For union labour, apply at Ford, GM, any European manufacturer.

                Tesla the anti-labour corporation buy one and you support union busting, buy one and you deny collectively bargaining, buy one and you support the loss of workers rights.

                Right now Tesla is heading right into a mass of competition, unionised competition, this will play out extremely bad

              • will not happen.

                The reason is that auto makers need cell production to be high, so as to lower their costs.
      • GM spends 1 billion making a great EV that worked. There is great demand. Then kills the project, destroys every EV car they made for trials. (insane fuckshits)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
        They did it to 'grab all EV talent' see how to compete with it, then kill it, so no competitor can start ever again. And to make sure no talent exists afterword, all hopes crushed.

        Your evidence is some video from 2009? GM has a very large EV and autonomous driving program.

      • Just curious - are you under 30, or forgetful?

        I still HAVE some nicad batteries, a nicad powered drill.
        The battery is 2X the size and about 1/2 the power. You could build a Tesla with old battery tech, but it would be literally full of batteries - there would be nowhere to sit.

      • Bullshit. GM built a car and found out it didn't work. Crappy range (50 miles for the first version, maybe 100 for the second one), space for two only, sky-high cost. Who knows what other skeletons surfaced in their test data.
        Then they took the only sensible course to minimize the loss: they took back the cars they leased, and destroyed those albatrosses (instead of being on the hook for maintaining them for the next 20 years).
        You can't "make sure no talent exists afterword", short of killing every designer

        • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          Your bullshit.

          Crappy range (50 miles for the first version

          Which is plenty for the daily commuting needs of most Americans.

          space for two only, sky-high cost

          Yeah, so did the first Tesla roadster. But that's just the SSDD: early adopters pay a high price, which lets the manufacturer ramp up production and increase quality while lowering prices. Electric cards, HDTV's, Blu Ray, etc etc etc.

          they took back the cars they leased, and destroyed those albatrosses

          Yeah, no connection between those dots. There was zero

          • There was zero reason for GM to destroy all the cars once leases were up and they were back in the company's poession.

            Destroying prototypes when their useful life is up is SOP. Every manufacturer does this with their prototypes and preproduction cars. They don't want to be on the hook for customer support and liability if they sell them. Especially in litigation-happy America, no manufacturer is going to allow prototypes out the door.

            Patents, NDA's.

            Electric drivetrains aren't rocket science, especially when you use a battery as basic as the lead-acid cells used in the EV1.
            The patentable technology would have been in the construction of t

            • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

              Destroying prototypes when their useful life is up is SOP.

              A car produced for four years isn't a "prototype".

              This is what sank the EV1: they cost $80-100,000 to make, and there was no way GM could make a profit on them.

              Every single product in the history of mankind was sold at a loss until investments and R&D costs were recouped. Microsoft lost up to $7 biiilliooon dollars [venturebeat.com] on the first XBox, to get a foot in the console game market. GM's first electric Hummers will be sold at a loss, right along with the

              • GM built only 1117 EV1s, and they leased them instead of selling them. The entire EV1 program was an experiment.
                The program followed the same pattern other public experiments by car makers did, e.g. the gas turbine car experiments in the 1960. All bought back/lease ended by manufacturers at the end of the experiment, cars destroyed.

                You're confusing production cost with recouping R&D. I'm saying each individual car cost them $80-100k to build. With the small numbers GM expected to sell, there was no way

                • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

                  GM built only 1117 EV1s

                  So pretty close to the number of Ford GT's [motortrend.com] that have been built. Guess how many of those have been forcibly recalled and destroyed.

                  You're confusing production cost with recouping R&D.

                  Hollywood Accounting? The first XBox didn't cost that much to make per unit, but Microsoft lost billions establishing themselves in the console market. That old line about 'yeah we're losing money per unit, but we'll make it up on volume' is supposed to be sarcastic...

                  GM's first electric Hummer will c

                  • You're misunderstanding me, there's no Hollywood accounting going on.

                    The price of a car consists of several items:
                    1. the unit cost: the total cost of the raw materials, purchased parts, factory time etc. required to produce 1 car. For the EV1 this was reported to be 80-100k.
                    2. an amount that goes towards recouping the R&D cost.
                    3. an amount that goes towards recouping the company's overhead.
                    4. profit.

                    The lease price was not enough to pay for item 1, let alone the other 3. GM made gigantic losses on the p

    • Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @09:18AM (#61205006)

      The dealership laws are bullshit. There is no reason buy I should be forced to buy a car from a middle man. How does that benefit the consumer?

      • Re:Duh (Score:4, Informative)

        by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @10:41AM (#61205234)

        I mean, as I pointed out, the point stands even with dealership laws. Digression because you asked: The origins of the dealership laws had good aims to benefit the custmer. To ensure that if you sell a car in a state you need to have a presence for lawsuits/recalls/warrantee work/lemon laws, local service options existed, purchasers complied with local laws and so the state could more easily regulate other things. At the time they even claimed to lower prices by making it so companies competed for your business to sell you a Ford.

        But, that's irrelevant, as is whether they've outgrown their usefulness.

        I included that because it's part of a pattern, not a stance. If you violate a prohibition on, I dunno, serving food to black people at same counter as white people, that's a moral stand and you should be commended for it. If you violate that law as well as health codes for cooking, electrical compliance laws for the wiring, minimum occupancy laws for fire safety and source your meat from a guy who proudly has low prices due to meat fraud, then you weren't taking a moral stand. You were undercutting every law you could to make more money. And it doesn't matter if one law you violate happens to be bad, at that point it's evidence that you're just a colossal dick.

      • > The dealership laws are bullshit. There is no reason buy I should be forced to buy a car from a middle man. How does that benefit the consumer?

        It's meant to benefit the cartel in exchange for campaign donations. Money gains power, power gains money - always.

        > Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard

        Oh, you were teasing!

    • Re:Duh (Score:4, Insightful)

      by plopez ( 54068 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @10:06AM (#61205150) Journal

      why can't we put them in jail? Corporations are people you know.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

      The two richest people in the world are now famous for union-busting and dangerous workplaces...can we officially declare this the second Gilded Age yet?

      • > can we officially declare this the second Gilded Age yet?

        No way - the standard of living and the value of the US Dollar rose dramatically during the Gilded Age. Both are falling precipitously now.

        Corporations and politicians are in bed but fucking everybody else.

        • by ghoul ( 157158 )
          Standard of living would rise if we stop the stupid hate for cheap Chinese imports. All the gains in Standard of living from the 80s to 2010 came off cheap Chinese labor. Then US decided to be nasty to China and stuff has stopped getting cheaper.
    • the chosen one is anti union ? .. wow
      updated my journal
      there goes my "ill clean the dustbins on the ship to mars"-idea
  • Maybe invest in automation. When was the last time you heard of robots unionizing?

    • by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @08:17AM (#61204836)

      Maybe invest in automation. When was the last time you heard of robots unionizing?

      The last time I heard about it was in 2001 [wikipedia.org]. Or more accurately was published in 2001 but about an incident in 3001.

    • by realxmp ( 518717 )
      Tesla tried that, it turns out it is cheaper to pay humans to do a lot of these tasks. See flufferbot: https://www.livescience.com/62... [livescience.com]
      • things have changed. Look at their new production line for cells. A single line makes 10GW/year, is a fraction of the space of current tech, and is in a lights-out factory.

        Tesla's real innovation is NOT the EV, but it is the manufacturing lines.
        • by realxmp ( 518717 )

          things have changed. Look at their new production line for cells. A single line makes 10GW/year, is a fraction of the space of current tech, and is in a lights-out factory.

          Making cells is a slightly different and simpler problem to making EVs. We have had lights out factories for specific tasks/goods for years, the more controlled and regimented the task the better. It really depends what you are making, what materials and what processes you need to apply. I am not going to deny there have been breakthroughs here, but it is still not the solution to every problem.

          Long term I can see someone like Tesla pushing the boundaries of what is possible with lights out manufacturing bu

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Eventually, sure. But the technology isn't flexible enough yet, robots are still mainly a people-augmenting tech. Some day it's going to happen, but for now being replaced by a robot is just a bogeyman used to scare workers.

      Robots appeared in a local supermarket chain after they had a strike. The robots slowly, slowly patrol the aisles looking for spills and other obstacles on the floor. So slowly, in fact, that if there were a spill it usually takes them longer to find than it would for a customer to re

    • You haven't been following the Tesla story I see. Musk's initial vision was a (nearly) all robot factory. Problem was all that automation failed to build cars fast and acceptably defect free. He had to bring in a lot of human assembly to get his cars produced.

  • I am surprised that Tesla gets every book thrown at it while Amazon skates by every time.
    • Good news for you : Amazon are going through a similar thing [businessinsider.com]
    • > I am surprised that Tesla gets every book thrown at it while Amazon skates by every time.

      One boss felates the politcians in power at every opportunity and the other regularly tells them to go fuck themselves on Twitter.

      I know which I'd rather be friends with, but my personality type is high in disagreeableness.

      PS I didn't say which was which - is it ambiguous?

  • by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Saturday March 27, 2021 @09:14AM (#61204994)

    The legal framework has been heavily stacked in favor of companies and corporations and against unions and workers for decades now. Notice that the only "penalty" for having illegally fired a worker seeking to unionize was to rehire him and pay back wages (with no interest), there is no penalty for having broken the law at all. So Musk has every incentive to keep disrupting unionization in this same manner, since the cost to him when caught and prosecuted is nothing, and the disruption of having the organizers removed from the workplace who was fired four years ago is extremely effective.

    Unless real penalties, like a $100 million fine for such activities, or legally enforced union presence in the workplace, are enacted Musk will lather-rinse-repeat forever.

  • Union busting is perfectly legal in the US. So many US companies depend on labor bases around the world with no power structure.
    • Union busting is perfectly legal in the US. So many US companies depend on labor bases around the world with no power structure.

      I was thinking with the story summary that maybe it was illegal, but just only selectively enforced? I wouldn't put it past some US states.

  • Good (Score:1, Insightful)

    by DanDD ( 1857066 )

    After having been immersed in union labor issues as the child of a union member, then as an engineer surrounded by union labor issues in manufacturing, I am firmly of the opinion that labor unions are the soul sucking death of an industry.

    Why should anyone have to 'join' a union, pay dues, and follow their arcane rules? Should'nt our labor laws apply to everyone and be enforced equally and fairly, regardless of the industry? That's the ideal I'd rather shoot for, rather than than supporting the Mob that u

    • Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27, 2021 @11:34AM (#61205416)
      Let's turn your question around. You have two mobs, the employer and the union. Why should the federal government take sides [wikipedia.org]?
      • by DanDD ( 1857066 )

        So what you are saying is that countering stupid with more stupid isn't working out so well? Agreed.

    • That's the problem with a lot of liberal ideas. Sometimes there's a genuine need for things, but those things often have a shelf life and become an anchor on society once their day has come. Unions were needed. They did improve things for every working person. The thing is, they did their job. The needed protections are now enshrined in federal and state law. Now all the unions do is is suck productivity, take part of worker's wages, and use those wages to bribe politicians in to protecting said unions

    • Unions have their places. They are NOT the issue. The issue is that Executives went from making successful companies, to making their $ off manipulated stock.
      Remove that ability of the executive, and instead, return their success being tied to the COMPANY's success, i.e. profits, and then you will see decent companies.
      • Unions have their places. They are NOT the issue. The issue is that Executives went from making successful companies, to making their $ off manipulated stock. Remove that ability of the executive, and instead, return their success being tied to the COMPANY's success, i.e. profits, and then you will see decent companies.

        Then you will see all the best executives more to other countries to run their companies.
        I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if that's good or bad...

  • He needs to found a religion. Solves all the union issues, labor laws, SEC regulations, and covid gathering restrictions, AND no taxes. What's not to like?

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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