Tesla fires more than 30 workers after union drive announcement

Tesla workers at the Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, allege over 30 workers were fired on 14 February in response to the announcement of a union organizing drive at the 1,000-worker facility.

The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has fought union drives in the past. The campaign, Tesla Workers United, is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate Workers United and has filed an injunction with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to halt the firings.

The union, if successful, would be a first at Tesla. Workers attempted to organize a union at the Fremont, California, production plant in 2017 with the United Auto Workers before several employees involved in the union campaign were also terminated.

Tesla has not commented in response to the firings and disbanded its US media relations team in 2020.