The United Auto Workers union leader said he did not speak to Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk after the chief executive invited him to hold a union vote, but is open to such discussions when the company addresses past issues.
“I have not spoken to Mr. Musk or any representative from Tesla,” UAW President Ray Curry said Tuesday during a roundtable with the Automotive Press Association. During the hour-long session, Curry also spoke about how the transition to electric vehicles will affect the union’s negotiations for 2023, organizing EV startups and how supply chain disruptions could present opportunities for companies in the United States
Musk this month invited the UAW to hold a vote at Tesla, a departure from previous comments he had criticized for unionization. “I would like to invite the UAW to hold a union vote at will. Tesla won’t do anything to stop them,” Musk said via Twitter in early March.
Tesla TSLA, +0.71% of employees are non-union. Some employees at the company’s Fremont, California plant tried to organize with the help of the UAW a few years ago, but Tesla took steps to thwart the effort, including “forced interrogation” of employees and threats of forfeiting stock options violated US labor law, the National Labor Relations Board ruled.
Curry said Tuesday that Tesla could demonstrate its commitment to participating in union talks by addressing issues raised by the NLRB, reinstating terminated workers and dropping its appeal of the board’s decision.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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