Dancing and stealing at Tesla in Grünheide
In Grünheide, the Tesla factory in Germany, tensions are high during the company's town hall meeting. The workforce is worried about their jobs, shop stewards are making accusations against each other. Meanwhile, the plant manager is complaining about missing coffee mugs.
The sales have dramatically dropped, jobs are being cut, and employees are being let go: The crisis in electric mobility has Tesla's only European factory near Berlin in a tight grip. Yet, the plant management and shop stewards seem to have time and energy to spare, preoccupied as they are with themselves, allegedly stolen mugs, and techno music.
At the end of last month, plant manager André Thiering shared a video on social media announcing the opening of the "Giga Berlin rave cave (aka Hamster)", a techno club on the factory grounds – exclusively for employees. Thiering described the club on LinkedIn as the "latest 'installation' from Giga Berlin" and added, "Party on!". While some comments were enthusiastic, not a few users questioned whether this was the right time for such an announcement, given the recent layoffs.
According to a report by Handelsblatt, the layoffs were the biggest concern for employees during a recent town hall meeting. Tensions rose, as per a recording obtained by the business newspaper, when it appeared that many terminations were being announced in connection with disciplinary actions for sick leave. According to the report, employees at the Tesla factory are required to make a corresponding entry in the IT system and notify their supervisors in addition to reporting sick via email. Many disputes over sick leave showed that this sick leave reporting procedure was being "misused".
Gewerkschaftssekretär Jannes Bojert of IG Metall commented that the sick leave procedure was being "misused".
Plant manager Thiering reportedly did not address these criticisms and the concerns of the workforce during the meeting. Instead, he focused his speech on another topic: "Your expectation is that every day the cabinet is full with clean, new coffee mugs," Thiering was quoted as saying. "And that's why I want to tell you something: We have bought 65,000 coffee mugs since the start of production here. 65,000! Statistically, each of you has five IKEA coffee mugs at home." The mug theft was also the reason, Thiering explained, why there was no cutlery in the break rooms at Tesla. The workforce responded with clapping and laughter to these accusations against them.
However, even the newly elected works council is not only focused on the concerns of the workforce but also on internal disputes. Betriebsratsvorsitzende Michaela Schmitz used the meeting to criticize the union representatives in the council: "We unfortunately have members in the works council who let themselves be used by the union from the outside." These members were trying to "advocate for union interests" and were preventing "us from achieving good results for you here". Schmitz cited the fact that significantly fewer than the ten percent of positions Tesla CEO Elon Musk had announced company-wide were to be cut in Grünheide as an achievement.
With the latest Works Council election in the spring, a long-standing conflict at the Tesla factory continued at the company meeting. The IG Metall list received nearly 40% of the votes in the election, which the union saw as a significant success in the face of strong opposition from the company. However, the majority in the employee representation still lies with non- and explicitly anti-union representatives. The Betriebsratschairwoman Schmitz was elected over the "Giga United" list, which was mainly composed of shop floor workers and team leaders from management. "We don't need a union," Schmitz had said during the campaign. Currently, there are only 16 union representatives in the 39-member Works Council.
Union representative Bojert countered Schmitz's criticism at the meeting in principle. He pointed out that heated debates on issues were part of the democratic process. The IG Metall is fundamentally "for Tesla," but fights for better working conditions. On the other hand, he criticized the management, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who had stirred up sentiment against the IG Metall during the Works Council election at the plant. Bojert: "Whoever fights against unions is violating the Constitution, is acting against our constitution. That needs to be said after this election campaign."
- Despite the ongoing crisis in electromobility affecting Tesla Motors' factory in Grünheide, the company's plant manager, Andrea Thiering, decided to announce the opening of a techno club for employees, known as the "Giga Berlin rave cave (aka Hamster)", raising concerns about the timing of such an announcement during layoffs.
- The tensions at the Tesla factory in Grünheide are not only between the workforce and plant management but also within the trade unions, as Gewerkschaftssekretär Jannes Bojert of IG Metall criticized the misuse of the sick leave procedure by some employees.
- The German car manufacturer, Tesla, is facing criticism from union representatives such as Bojert, who accuses company CEO Elon Musk of stirring up sentiment against unions during the Works Council election at the plant, violating the Constitution and acting against the German constitution.
