Tesla offers some of its US workers a 10% pay increase

2023-12-19 17:44:00

Tesla will increase the wages of some of its workers in the United States by 10% shortly after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced that it will intensify its efforts to unionize employees of large automakers in the country.

According to documents to which the CNBC television network has had access, starting in January 2024 the salaries of workers at the Tesla battery plant in the town of Sparks, in the state of Nevada, will increase by 10%.

The percentage is similar to the increases that Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen (VW) and Kia have offered their workers in the United States in recent weeks.

Only workers at the three big U.S. manufacturers (General Motors, Ford and Stellantis) are unionized.

Last October, after a six-week strike that affected dozens of workplaces, the UAW won 25% wage increases, as well as other economic and labor benefits, for workers at Detroit’s Big Three.

Shortly after the agreements with GM, Ford and Stellantis, other automakers began offering wage increases in an attempt to discourage union formation in their workplaces.

But UAW President Shawn Fain has warned that the union’s next goal is to unionize the rest of the major automakers in the United States, especially Tesla, Toyota and VW.

Already in early December, the UAW announced that at least a third of the workforce at VW’s only automobile assembly plant in the US, Chattanooga, Tennessee, had begun the process to unionize the workplace.

Tesla CEO, businessman Elon Musk, has repeatedly expressed his disdain for unions and his opposition to the electric vehicle maker’s workers joining labor organizations.

Specifically, Tesla’s operations in northern Europe are currently affected by a growing labor conflict following the company’s refusal to sign a collective agreement with its workers in Sweden.

Unions in Finland, Norway and Denmark have decided to support the strike carried out by workers in Sweden, blocking the transit of vehicles and components of that brand through their ports and territories.

EFE