NEWS & COMMENTARY November 16, 2022

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/november-16-2022/


In today’s News and Commentary: whistleblowers expose employment law violations at Tesla’s massive new Texas facility; lingering uncertainty remains as to the fate of the tentative railway agreement; Starbucks shutters yet another unionized store; a local coffee chain discontinues operations after a successful unionization drive; and a management-side law firm explores the implications of the midterm elections for national labor and employment policy.

The Guardian reported yesterday that whistleblowers intend to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor on the basis of exploitative pay practices and unsafe working conditions experienced by the thousands of construction workers building Tesla’s massive “gigafactory” in Austin, Texas—labor practices which allegedly contravene such federal employment statutes as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. More specifically, the reports include, among other things, allegations of wage theft; onsite safety hazards; numerous accidents and injuries; and fraudulent OSHA certificates.

Tesla selected Austin as the site of its new facility after inducing the city to bestow tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks upon it, and broke ground on the sprawling compound in 2020, which is slated to cost over $1 billion and, extending across 10 million square feet of factory floor, to be one of the largest vehicle manufacturing facilities in the country. The emerging reports of exploitative employment practices and unsafe working conditions are certainly not the first such allegations to be raised with respect to the electric vehicle manufacturer—Tesla’s plant in California, for example, incurred nearly $250,000 in OSHA fines between 2014 and 2018, more than any other automobile manufacturing firm during that time, and the company’s other gigafactory in Nevada has witnessed a steady stream of workplace safety violations and injuries, including amputations. Moreover, Tesla has committed unfair labor practices on several occasions.

FULL commentary at link above.