Tesla Workers' Union Push Gets UAW Support at California Plant

  • Union president Dennis Williams says discussions underway
  • UAW making the effort with U.S. union membership at record low

Workers add seat belts to a Telsa Motor Inc. Model S sedan at the company's assembly plant in Fremont, California.

Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg
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The United Auto Workers has sent organizers to help employees organize Tesla Inc.’s electric-car plant, a move that -- if successful -- would give the union the presence it’s long sought beyond legacy U.S. automakers’ factories.

A group of Tesla workers have contacted the union to seek assistance organizing, and the UAW is in discussion with them, Dennis Williams, the union’s president, told reporters during a roundtable Thursday in Detroit. He said union organizers have received complaints about long hours and potentially unsafe conditions at Tesla’s plant in Fremont, California.