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- Tesla workers in New York emailed Elon Musk about their campaign to unionize, per Bloomberg.
- Workers told the publication they wanted to secure better pay and working conditions.
- They also want to curb workplace monitoring and metrics, per Bloomberg.
Tesla workers at its plant in Buffalo, New York, emailed Elon Musk early Tuesday to inform him of their campaign to unionize, Bloomberg reported.
The group of workers – who, according to Bloomberg, label data for Tesla's autopilot technology and are paid around $19 an hour – want to secure better pay, job security, a say in workplace decisions, and a reduction in production pressure and measuring metrics, the publication added.
If successful, it would be Tesla's first trade union.
Workers who are part of the union effort told Bloomberg that their keystrokes were monitored to check how long employees worked on tasks. Some avoided taking bathroom breaks as a result, six workers said.
Per Bloomberg, the workers are organizing with Workers United, a union that has helped Starbucks' cafes across the US push to unionize.
Insider reached out to Tesla and Workers United for comment but did not immediately hear back.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla workers discussed union plans in an informal Discord chat and began building a committee after an internal chat channel where employees could discuss work issues was shut down.
Employees planned to hand out Valentine-themed leaflets on Tuesday with links to a website that encourages other workers to sign up. The leaflets say: "Roses are red / violets are blue / forming a union starts with you," per Bloomberg.
—TeslaWorkersUnited (@united_tesla) February 14, 2023
Previous unsuccessful unionization efforts by Tesla employees included one in California in 2017. Workers organized over concerns about equipment causing workplace injuries.
As Insider reported in 2017, Musk had described accusations about regular injuries and poor working conditions at the Fremont plant as "disingenuous or outright false" but later told employees, "It breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars" and to report injuries directly to him.
The company reportedly hired a PR firm to monitor employee conversations on social media during the push to unionize in 2017.
Additionally, in 2018, former employees at a Tesla factory in Buffalo that produced solar roof tiles, started a unionization drive, Bloomberg Law reported.
Musk has been a vocal critic of unions and has attacked President Biden for working on a bill that would grant tax incentives to unionized electric vehicle makers in September.