At the American electric car manufacturer Tesla The second works council election began on Monday in Grünheide near Berlin. At Tesla's only European car factory, nine lists with 234 candidates are running for election.
The previous president of the works council, Michaela Schmitz, is running again as a candidate. According to its own data, IG Metall has 106 candidates. The union demands better working conditions and a commitment to sign a collective agreement, which Tesla rejects.
Current member of the works council in office from 2022
IG Metall sees great interest in the elections. “The election of the works council at Tesla got off to a good start. There is great interest among colleagues to get involved and take advantage of the opportunity to have an engaged works council,” said Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district manager Dirk Schulze. “Colleagues tell us about queues in front of the polling stations in the company.” He is pleased that the break at the start of the works council elections has been extended from half an hour to an hour and a half.
The first election of the works council took place in 2022, before the plant opened. Since then, many more people have worked at the Grünheide factory. The union criticized that the previous president of the works council came from the management sector. Schmitz rejected the criticism.
GigaFactory Grünheide currently has 12,500 employees
In 2022, Tesla opened its GigaFactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg. Tesla boss Elon Musk was present personally. 12,500 employees currently work at the plant. The annual production capacity is 500,000 vehicles. Tesla wants to double its capacity.
Production is suspended after the attack on high voltage towers
There has been a lot to read about GigaFactory recently. On March 5, unknown assailants set fire to a high-voltage tower in a field that is part of the electricity supply to the electric car factory in Grünheide, near Berlin. Production was paralyzed for almost a week.
The left-wing extremist group “Vulkan Group” claimed responsibility for the attack. The Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation. According to the “Stop Tesla” initiative, a protest camp demonstrating against a planned expansion by Tesla has nothing to do with the attack.
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