Several employees at the Tesla factory in Buffalo have been fired a day after launching union organizing efforts.
The workers received an email Wednesday evening updating them on a new policy that prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without all participants' permission, Tesla Workers United, the group behind the union movement, said in a release Thursday.
TWU said such restrictions violate federal labor laws and disregard New York's one-party consent law to record conversations.
"We're angry. This won't slow us down. This won't stop us," Sara Costantino, a current Tesla employee and organizing committee member, said in a prepared statement. "They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do this. But I believe we will do this."
TWU said that the firings were unacceptable and that the expectations placed on Tesla workers are "unfair, unattainable, ambiguous and ever changing."
"I feel blindsided, I got COVID and was out of the office, then I had to take a bereavement leave. I returned to work, was told I was exceeding expectations and then Wednesday came along," organizing committee member Arian Berek, who is one of the fired employees, said in a statement. "I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement, and it's shameful."
In a statement, Tesla said the terminations were the result of poor ratings on performance reviews that were conducted before the union campaign was announced. The list of employees being dismissed was finalized Feb. 3, and Tesla became aware of organizing activities Feb. 13, the company said.
"We learned in hindsight that one out of the 27 impacted employees officially identified as part of the union campaign," Tesla said. "This exercise pre-dated any union campaign."
Nick Piazza, a data annotation specialist at Tesla, told WBEN he and other workers aren't buying the company's explanation.
"From what we're understanding, they're saying that they're (the terminations) are performance-based," said Piazza. "People were told just last week that, your performance is doing okay, it's trending upward. Everything was cool. And then, after we announced the union, people start getting fired for this. So the timing is rather convenient."
The Rochester Regional Joint Board of Workers United has filed a complaint against Tesla with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the electric vehicle maker of unfair labor practices.
In the complaint, the group lists the names of several employees who were part of the factory's autopilot department that were fired. The group says that it believes Tesla "terminated these individuals in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity." It is asking the NLRB for injunctive relief "to prevent irreparable destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla’s unlawful conduct."
"If it is found that Tesla has, in fact, retaliated against employees for engaging in this protected activity, then they will be liable for lost wages and other potential damages," labor law expert and attorney Robert Boreanaz told WBEN. "From what I've been told, that the National Labor Relations Board, meeting here in Western New York, is going to consider asking a judge to stop Tesla from these kinds of terminations and restore them to employment. That is a step that the board normally does not take in these kinds of matters. If in fact, they do carry out that action, it really gives you a sign that the board is really feeling like Tesla, perhaps has violated the law here."
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