As UAW looks to expand, Musk fires back

The United Auto Workers on Nov. 29 announced an organizing campaign covering 13 auto makers with U.S. assembly plants that, if successful, would roughly double the number of active auto workers it represents.

The union said thousands of nonunion employees are signing support cards and organizing to join the UAW, weeks after it won lucrative contracts at Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis. The drives are taking place at BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The companies have about 150,000 U.S. manufacturing employees. The UAW has about 146,000 members at the Detroit 3 today.

"To all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union: Now it's your turn," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video released Wednesday. "Since we began our stand-up strike, the response from auto workers at nonunion companies has been overwhelming."

Fain telegraphed the union’s plans immediately after announcing tentative agreements with the Detroit 3 late last month, saying that he hopes to return to the bargaining table in 2028 with a “Big Five or Big Six.”

In a release, the union billed the simultaneous campaign as a “new aggressive strategy” that takes advantage of “working class leverage.”

Its website has an organizing page that highlights profits and CEO pay at the various companies it hopes to unionize—a tactic it employed to great effect during contract negotiations with the Detroit 3.The UAW said 30 percent of workers at a single plant need to sign an authorization card to publicly announce an organizing committee, Reuters and other outlets reported.

If half of the workers at a single plant sign the card, the UAW says Fain and others would hold a rally. If the plant reaches 70 percent, the union says it would demand voluntary recognition by the company and, if they refuse, would file to hold an election with the National Labor Relations Board.

The UAW has tried and failed multiple times to organize nonunion auto plants in the U.S.

The most recent defeat came in 2019, when it fell less than 100 votes short at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. It has also unsuccessfully attempted to organize a Tesla Inc. plant in California, an effort that CEO Elon Musk opposed.

And, it turns out, he opposes it this time, too.

During a discussion with the New York Times Nov. 29, Musk said the auto maker treats employees well, giving line workers the opportunity to become managers and even millionaires through stock options. He said he doesn't see the need for the UAW at its plants.

"I think it's generally not good to have an adversarial relationship between one group at the company and another group," Musk said. "The unions naturally try to create negativity in a company and create a sort of lords and peasants situation."

In contrast, Musk said Tesla workers and management eat at the same table and park in the same parking lot, suggesting less of a hierarchy at Tesla factories than at UAW plants.

"If Tesla gets unionized, it will be because we deserve it, and we failed in some way," Musk said. "But we certainly try hard to ensure the prosperity of everyone. We give everyone stock options. We've made many people who were just working the line, who didn't even know what stocks were, we've made them millionaires."

The UAW's plan to organize also comes on the heels of Volkswagen, Subaru, Honda, Toyota and Nissan. raising wages for nonunion U.S. factory workers in recent weeks.

Still, Fain says workers there can achieve even more by joining the UAW.

“You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck,” he said in the video. “You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your rent or feed your family while the company makes billions. A better life is out there.”

Laurence Iliff, Automotive News reporter, contributed to this report.