The German trade union scoffs at Elon Musk’s ultimatum on smart working and the request to return to work in person for at least 40 hours a week or leave the company: “Anyone who disagrees with these unilateral requests and wants to oppose, in Germany it has the power of the trade unions behind itas required by law, “explained Birgit Dietze, leader of the IG Metall association of Brandenburg Saxony.
The case
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The IG Metall union, very strong in the German state where the Tesla plant is located, thus summons Tesla’s approximately 4,000 German employees, which should become 12,000 shortly. And he shows Musk that relations with companies with workers in Germany are very different from those in other countries of the world. Suffice it to say that employees at the Tesla plant in Gruenheide, Germany, have already elected 19 union representatives already at the first workers’ council last February. To understand this, do you know how many union representatives there are in all the other Tesla factories in the US? Nobody. Zero. That is why Musk strongly opposed this choice of his German employees last February.
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But that’s not enough. German workers are used to having rich end-of-year bonuses if car sales soar (up to 10 thousand euros in premiums at Volkswagen) and these bonuses are often discussed in phase of union agreement. And this has never been talked about at Tesla. In addition, the German auto workers have never interacted directly with a CEO: there has never been a number one of a car manufacturer that is known to address the workers directly (in the case of Musk accusing them of cialtronaggine …).
It is true that in Germany there are no laws establishing the right to work from home, but the Ministry of Labor is developing policies that increase the flexibility of workers. And it is no coincidence that many companies, including car manufacturers, have already adopted hybrid work models in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that forced companies to have staff work from home.
The case
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The reaction of the competition also lasts: “We have a fundamentally different view on creating an attractive work environment and focus on empowerment and personal responsibility of our teams to balance the relationship between mobile and in-person work,” explained Gunnar Kilian, member of the board of directors of Volkswagen head of human resources. A version publicly supported by BMW and Mercedes: “Hybrid work – explained a spokesman for the Stuttgart company – is the working model of the future … different forms are possible, from complete presence to mainly remote work”.
Per Musk, In short, the management of his gigafactory in Berlin is getting more complicated every day. But that’s not the only trouble for the richest man in the world: Tesla AI Day has been moved to September 30, “because by then we may have a working Optimus prototype,” Musk tweeted almost two weeks later. having announced the date of 19 August.
Optimus is a humanoid robot Tesla has been working on for some time: “It could face the global labor shortage – explained Musk last January – and, in the short term, it could be able to transport objects to a factory”. such a heated controversy with the German unions, Musk cannot afford any misstep in launching a robot that, precisely in a factory, could upset the balance of the division of labor.