Oakland, Calif.—The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Tesla Aug. 31, accusing it 
of illegally interfering with workers’ efforts to organize a union at its Fremont factory. The United Automobile Workers had alleged that company security guards kicked out workers handing out union flyers in February, that at least three managers or supervisors personally “interrogated” workers about union activities or “attempted to prohibit” them from talking about the union, and that Tesla’s confidentiality agreement, which prohibits them from talking about work on social media, restrains employees’ freedom of speech. Tesla responded that “baseless” unfair-labor-practice charges were a “tactic that has been used in every union campaign since the beginning of time,” while simultaneously saying that the “UAW has strayed from the original mission of the American labor movement, which once advocated so nobly for the rights of workers.” “I joined others in filing the charges for myself, but I also did it for my coworkers—they need to know we have rights, and that we can speak up about what we are seeing and experiencing,” Tesla production associate Jonathan Galescu said in a statement. The NLRB’s hearing is scheduled for Nov. 14. Read more
