According to current information from Brandenburg’s Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach, Tesla is currently hiring 500-600 new employees per month for its Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin – but according to IG Metall, they have become more expensive: the German electric car factory is currently being “massively hired”, confirmed Birgit Dietze, district head of the union for Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony, in an interview with the print edition of Spiegel.
But Tesla is clearly feeling the lack of skilled workers in the region and is therefore now offering higher salaries to newcomers, which is leading to unrest in the workforce.
Higher pay expected at Tesla factory
The head of the employment agency in Frankfurt/Oder described at least the payment of the lower wage groups as a “cracker” for the region when hiring for the German Tesla factory began in autumn 2020. But Dietze explained even then that the starting salaries in the car industry are higher if you take special services and shift bonuses into account.
And according to them, Tesla had to realize in the meantime that it was not possible to recruit enough staff at the level initially offered. “When recruiting, the salary is already being improved,” she said, according to the Spiegel report. But that puts pressure on the mood in the Gigafactory because there are now different pay for the same work and qualifications. The union heard “that the first people are leaving Tesla and going back to their old employers,” reported Dietze.
The declared goal of IG Metall is that the German Gigafactory workforce is paid according to the car tariff. Tesla, on the other hand, apparently wants as little influence as possible from the union in its factory. A works council election was held there at the end of February, which was reportedly initiated by the management.
At that time, around 2,500 people worked at Tesla in Grünheide, and it was primarily specialists and managers who were able to run for office because you have to have been with the company for six months. The majority on the works council actually won the Gigavoice list, which is considered to be close to the employer.
Unionists want collective bargaining
So IG Metall couldn’t really get a foot in the Tesla door through this body, but it’s still trying. In the Spiegel interview, District Manager Dietze now said that there was so much pressure in the company that CEO Elon Musk would have no choice “but to raise salaries significantly soon”.
Like a signal from him that no union was needed, he would probably “grant” a company agreement on the payment, she explained. But that is “window dressing” because with such an agreement, the works council signs what the employer specifies. In collective bargaining, on the other hand, there is parity and you have the right to strike.
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