‘We can beat anybody’: Autoworkers’ union puts anti-union Elon Musk and Tesla in its sights after prevailing against Detroit’s Big 3

“We can beat anyone,” Fain said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday. “It will be up to the people who work for him to decide whether they want their fair share… or whether they want him to fly into space himself at their expense,” he said. “I think it’s doable.”

Fain said he had already seen factories and non-union workers in the United States react to the contract and was ready to go after them.

The UAW has already tried to organize the electric car industry leader and others. Fain says these efforts failed because of union corruption, closeness to bosses and bad contracts.

Fain’s predecessors, Bob King and Dennis Williams, both met with Musk. In 2020, Williams pleaded guilty embezzlement and racketeering.

Union leader says he sees no reason to meet with Tesla CEO. “I don’t know what good it would do,” Fain said. “Maybe we will find ourselves at the negotiating table once we are organized.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fain expects non-union businesses to try to keep the UAW out by now increase salariesas Toyota Motor Corp. did it this week. The Japanese auto giant announced plans this week to raise the top pay of most U.S. assembly line workers by 9.2 percent.

That won’t work, Fain says. “I hope we can do this, organize them and they become members of the UAW – and they can realize the power of membership and get an even better contract,” he said. declared.

UAW workers get 11% increase as soon as the new contracts are ratified. During the term of the contract, the automakers agreed to grant a 25% wage increase and a reinstatement of the cost of living allowance, which brings top wages to 33% over this period, as well as to allow new workers to progress more quickly towards the workplace. maximum wage of $42 per hour.