BUFFALO, N.Y. — The United Steelworkers Union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Tesla, accusing the company of surveillance and illegally firing its employees at the Buffalo plant.
The United Steelworkers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are also working to organize the facility that has about 300 employees at its Buffalo site.
The story was reported by Andrew Wallender at Bloomberg Law.
A spokesperson with Telsa told 2 On Your Side in a written statement, "Tesla greatly values our employees at our Buffalo facility, and respects their right to organize. The ULP allegation is without merit and we will be responding as part of the NLRB process.”
Jim Heaney, from our partners at the Investigative Post, has been following Tesla for years. He said he's not surprised by the allegations.
"Tesla has had its share of labor problems in the past so this does not appear to be out of character," Heaney said.
In April, the company says it lost more than $700 million in the first quarter and that solar panel installations were down.
In January, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk said the company would be cutting its staff by about seven percent, and that could translate into as many as 50 Western New Yorkers losing their jobs at the company's factory in South Buffalo.
New York State paid 750-million dollars to build and equip Buffalo's Tesla facility with a promise of bringing 1,460 employees to the area by April 2020.
If Tesla doesn't reach that goal, it will have to pay back tens of millions of dollars.