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Disclaimer: While I don't work at Tesla I do work as a technician at another Musk company, SpaceX, so I'm not exactly impartial. I'm broadly supportive of pri

Disclaimer: While I don't work at Tesla I do work as a technician at another Musk company, SpaceX, so I'm not exactly impartial. I'm broadly supportive of private sector unions, and I think it would be great if the relationship between unions and employers in the US would more closely match what I've observed in Europe and Japan. With that being said, I think it's perfectly reasonable to be supportive of unions in general, while being critical of certain aspects of them. My own criticism of unions comes both from my personal experience working in a union shop, as well as second hand info I get from several close friends currently working in union shops at the Port of LA/LB and various municipal and private employers in the LA/OC area. My personal criticisms stem from what I viewed as an almost total inability to hold more senior employees accountable for performance, an extremely rigid organizational structure that made it very difficult/impossible for a low level employee like myself to try and get into new positions based on work and effort rather than strict seniority, and a very lax attitude towards harassment and discrimination towards those who were not white or Hispanic, and especially towards those who weren't heterosexual. Sprinkle in a heavy dose of nepotism at the top and things got bad enough that I actually quit and went back to working a crappy retail job. Now I realize that these things could just as well, and in fact do, occur in non-union shops, which is why I still support unions in general, but again, I don't think they are above critique. My view of public employee unions, particularly for public safety employees like police and fire, is more philosophically opposed. Edited for punctuation.

grecy 9y ago
Thanks for the detailed reply, I appreciate it. I am in total agreement with you - Unions are good, but nothing is above constructive criticism. After all, the goal is constant improvement.
beaconstudios 9y ago
I'm surprised that unions would have a problem with racism and homophobia given they're usually run by pretty far-left-minded people.
- Inconel 9y ago
  It is of course important to note that my experience with unions is by no mean exhaustive, I can only describe what I experienced at one particular employer, this very well might not be an issue elsewhere. On the other hand, it's my understanding that historically, in the US at least, unions were somewhat frequently used as a way to keep minorities out of certain professions. I would also caution against assuming that because unions, and their members, might share similar views with traditionally left wing political parties in regards to employment policies, that these views extend to being left wing or "progressive" on non-work related issues. I would probably describe myself as being well to the left of mainstream US politics when it comes to most social issues, and probably fairly to the left on economic issues, and I did not get the sense that most union coworkers shared these sentiments in the least.
mugrimm 9y ago
Are you aware Tesla had the worst safety record in the entire auto industry and still won't release it's safety record from prior years? If Musk wanted to prevent a union, he shouldn't have gone so cheap.

grecy 9y ago

Thanks for the detailed reply, I appreciate it. I am in total agreement with you - Unions are good, but nothing is above constructive criticism. After all, the goal is constant improvement.

beaconstudios 9y ago

I'm surprised that unions would have a problem with racism and homophobia given they're usually run by pretty far-left-minded people.

Inconel 9y ago
It is of course important to note that my experience with unions is by no mean exhaustive, I can only describe what I experienced at one particular employer, this very well might not be an issue elsewhere. On the other hand, it's my understanding that historically, in the US at least, unions were somewhat frequently used as a way to keep minorities out of certain professions. I would also caution against assuming that because unions, and their members, might share similar views with traditionally left wing political parties in regards to employment policies, that these views extend to being left wing or "progressive" on non-work related issues. I would probably describe myself as being well to the left of mainstream US politics when it comes to most social issues, and probably fairly to the left on economic issues, and I did not get the sense that most union coworkers shared these sentiments in the least.

mugrimm 9y ago

Are you aware Tesla had the worst safety record in the entire auto industry and still won't release it's safety record from prior years? If Musk wanted to prevent a union, he shouldn't have gone so cheap.