Shifts cut, temporary workers laid off – there is a crisis at Tesla in Grünheide
Employees of the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide during the final inspection of a Model Y
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa
Contrary to how it appears on the outside, things are no longer running smoothly at Tesla in Germany either. Internal e-mails show that management is cutting work shifts. Insiders also report that hundreds of temporary workers are being laid off. The original production target is on hold.
Bno Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW are deeply concerned about US competitor Tesla. The board members in Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and Munich fear that the technological gap to the electric car manufacturer is at least two, more likely five years. on top of that Tesla is currently selling more e-cars than all German vehicle manufacturers put together. The factory in Grünheide, which initially made the headlines with scandals and rule-breaking, also seems to be running.
Tesla’s first production facility in Europe now employs more than ten thousand people and is expected to produce more than 5,000 cars a day. At least that’s what the car manufacturer says, which gives the impression that Tesla is on the road to success.
However, internal Tesla documents and statements from insiders show that the Factory in Gruenheide apparently in crisis. In an internal email obtained by Business Insider, factory management announced it would be eliminating extra shifts in the second quarter. This means the shifts on weekends and public holidays. In addition, the regular work shifts in the factory are to be reduced from a total of three to two and a half.
And that doesn’t seem to be all: Numerous Tesla insiders report that the factory is currently planning to lay off a low to mid three-digit number of temporary workers. According to the employment agency, the temporary workers make up around ten percent of the workforce in the factory, which means that there are around 1,000 temporary workers in the factory.
According to statements by employees, the management is apparently willing to forego a significant part of this workforce. The supervisors in the factory are said to have communicated this to their employees in the past few weeks. According to insiders, they also said that the production target of 6,000 cars per day in Grünheide was on hold until further notice.
So is Tesla possibly selling far fewer cars in Grünheide than planned? Is the order situation at Tesla quite manageable in the end? In any case, these would be plausible explanations for the measures currently being taken in the Grünheide factory.
Tesla admits: the number of temporary workers will be reduced
At German car manufacturers, work shifts are canceled and temporary workers are laid off when the order situation is bad. This would plague the US carmaker with the same problems that it is currently having Volkswagen has to fight. We therefore sent a long catalog of questions to the Tesla management and the works council of the factory. Both passages initially left our questions unanswered. After the article appeared, a spokeswoman spoke to the German Press Agency.
“The Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is still successfully ramping up,” says the spokeswoman. As is customary in the industry, temporary workers were used during the ramp-up. “This service will continue to be required in the future, but to a lesser extent.”
The company did not specify an order of magnitude. However, Tesla will continue to work with a large number of temporary workers. The spokeswoman confirms the canceled extra shifts. We also asked the temporary work agencies concerned, who also did not want to comment officially on our questions. However, we have learned from company circles that temporary workers of the magnitude mentioned are actually being made redundant.
The article first appeared on Business Insider under the title “Shifts cut, employees laid off: the Tesla factory in Grünheide is apparently in crisis“
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