Elon Musk challenges UAW to hold a union vote at Tesla’s California factory

The United Auto Workers will hold a union vote at the company's factory in California, according to Musk. The company's real challenge in the Bay Area is negative unemployment, so it treats and compensates its employees well, or they will just leave.

Gene Simmons, co-lead singer of Kiss, sided with Musk when he called out the President for not mentioning the company in his State of the Union Address. The President only praised Ford and General GM for investing billions of dollars in their efforts to release electric vehicles, which resulted in thousands of jobs being created in the process. Biden is a labor union supporter and often snubs non-unionized companies in his speeches and interviews.

Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!

I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022

Musk posted an interview of GM CEO Mary Barra as his source, claiming that the factory workers at the company have the highest compensation in the industry. Andrew Sorkin said in an interview that non-unionized workers atTesla were earning more than their unionized counterparts. Since one must also take benefits and not just wages into account, Sorkin said last time she checked that wasn't the case.

The UAW has been trying to unionize for years, and Musk has criticized them from the beginning. Musk sent out a letter to employees with a point-by-point rebuttal after a production worker claimed poor working conditions and low pay. He said that the union's true loyalties are to the giant car companies, where the money they take from employees in dues is vastly more than they could ever make from them.

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against the automaker after investigating complaints of unfair labor practices. The workers said that they were intimidated by the confidentiality agreement that prevented them from discussing unionization. The company violated labor laws when it fired union activist Richard Ortiz and was ordered to compensate him for the loss of earnings and benefits.

Musk was ordered by the labor board to remove the threat to employees. Musk invited efforts to unionize. He wrote that he could do it tomorrow if they wanted. However, he also said: "But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?" The company's rising stock prices make it a very valuable benefit, and most of its employees are offered stock compensation.

The article originally appeared on Engadget.