Work at Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory was temporarily halted after around 100 construction workers downed tools in protest of out of state workers being used, reported Bloomberg.
Work on the $5billion pound plant was ahead of schedule before the walk out last Monday— which consisted of third party construction workers (named as Brycon Corp. in reports) staging a walk out.
The Boomberg report quotes Todd Koch, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada, as saying: “It’s a slap in the face to Nevada workers to walk through the parking lot at the job site and see all these license plates from Arizona and New Mexico.”
A Tesla spokesperson told BBB: “Monday’s protest at the Gigafactory consisted of third party construction workers, who explained that their sole complaint was with the residency of a single other contractor’s employees.
“The protest ended after a few hours. It has been business as usual at the Gigafactory ever since. Tesla’s employees were not involved in any way and there are no so-called “labor issues,” wage disputes or anything similar at the Gigafactory.
“The protester’s issue is not with how Tesla treats its workers. Their issue is that of the many third party contractors that are involved in the construction of the Gigafactory, many are union but the one at issue is not.
“The union is also claiming that this contractor is somehow favoring out of state workers. In reality, more than 50% of the workers used by this contractor and more than 75% of the entire Gigafactory workforce are Nevada residents, demonstrating the project’s strong commitment to Nevada.”
Assembly of batteries began last year at the Gigafactory, including those for the Powerwall, which saw the first installations in Australia, the UK and South Africa in the past two months.
