BUFFALO, N.Y. — After dozens of employees at Buffalo's Tesla Gigafactory were fired earlier this week, workers are speaking out.
Tesla said those employees were fired because of "low performance," but the employees say the company did it in retaliation for those wanting to unionize.
"There is no future without having workers' needs met," Al Celli with Tesla Workers United said Saturday.
Celli is on the organizing committee of Tesla Workers United and also works in the autopilot department at Tesla. That's the department that started chatting about unionizing in an online work channel, which also included managers, after the November snowstorm.
Though there were travel bans in place, employees say they were only given two options: use their PTO or not get paid at all.
"It feels sour to have to use that or not get paid at all, especially when you work for a company like Tesla that's as lucrative and profitable as it is," said Alex Kowalewski, who works in the autopilot department at Tesla.
Celli added: "We voiced some concerns over policies that surrounded these snowstorms. Essentially that led to people openly talking about wanting a union at Tesla. Shortly after that, our channel was shut down."
Celli says most of the employees in the chatroom were the ones who were fired earlier this week, including one worker who was organizing with Tesla Workers United.
Tesla posted this lengthy statement to its website, saying all the allegations are false.
Part of it says employees who had a low-performance review were identified on Feb. 3, 10 days before the company claims it became aware of the union campaign.
Tesla Workers United has asked the National Labor Relations Board to file a federal court injunction to bring back those fired employees.
"Six or seven board agents cleared their schedules yesterday to take affidavits from fired workers. They did 14 affidavits in one day which is pretty unprecedented," said Jaz Brisack, with Tesla Workers United.
Job security is part of the very reason Tesla Gigifactory employees want a union. New York is an at-will state, meaning they can be fired for any reason.
"I don't know what I would do if I lost my job right now," Kowalewski said.
They also want better pay, promises kept and management issues resolved.
"It's not a bad place to be. It's not a bad place to work but it doesn't mean it can't be better," Kowalewski said.