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posted by martyb on Friday February 10 2017, @02:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the pressing-for-change dept.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused one of his employees of being a union agitator working on behalf of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW):

Earlier today, a Tesla employee wrote a post on Medium alleging that he and fellow Tesla employees at the company's Fremont, California manufacturing facility endure "excessive mandatory overtime," lower-than-average pay, and frequent injuries. Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the claims in a series of private Twitter messages to Gizmodo by calling the employee, who wrote under the name Jose Moran, a pro-union agitator working on behalf of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).

"Our understanding is that this guy was paid by the UAW to join Tesla and agitate for a union," Musk says. The Tesla chief goes on to call Moran an employee of UAW, working on behalf of the union and not Tesla. When asked about his stance on unions, Musk describes Tesla as a "union neutral" company.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Tesla has paused production at its California assembly plant to prepare for the production of the company's long-awaited Model 3 sedan.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday February 10 2017, @04:01PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday February 10 2017, @04:01PM (#465501)

    Under current US law, the workers at Tesla have a right to determine by their vote whether they want to be represented by U.A.W. or any other union they damn well please. If they choose to have union representation, then they get to elect their local leadership, who will then (with the help of the national U.A.W.) negotiate a contract with Tesla management. And yes, that also means that it's illegal for Tesla to fire this guy because of his union associations.

    For a guy who claims to be "union neutral", Musk is sure not acting like it. The "outside agitators stirring up trouble" line of argument is consistently used by those with power to dismiss the complaints of those without power.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @05:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @05:06PM (#465530)

    I never really bought all the hero worship that Musk gets.
    He's just another billionaire. The most kind thing you can say about them is that they are all limited by their experiences, just like any other human.
    But the experiences that most billionaires have are ideal for blinding them to what its like for non-billionaires.

    Even the ones who aren't born rich, they typically end up with a mythology that "if I can do it, anyone can do it" without any comprehension that the only thing that distinguishes them from all the other hard-working ass-busting slobs who are lucky if they can afford a mortgage is the rare good luck of a billionaire and the typical bad luck of the prole.

    • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @06:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 10 2017, @06:02PM (#465550)

      Lazy hippy, if you're having trouble finding your bootstraps I'll be more than happy to kick you in the butt and get your face closer to them.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday February 10 2017, @11:34PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday February 10 2017, @11:34PM (#465626)

      For the True Believers of capitalism, the simple fact that person X is richer than person Y are means that, by definition, X must be a better person than Y in some way.

      Never mind that in a lot of cases, the truly rich inherited their money.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.