Tesla on a collision course with German tradition of entrepreneurship and control
The construction of a giga factory makes Tesla one of the most important investors ever in the former East-Germany, and that has garnered admiration in Germany. The American car manufacturer, in turn, does not want any influence from the powerful trade union IG-Metal..
The American car manufacturer Tesla is welcomed with open arms in Germany, but a conflict lurks between the American and German way of doing business. Tesla demands secrecy from all parties it works with and Tesla does not want to know anything about employee control for the time being.
Politicians and unions fear that Tesla wants to set the rules of the game and has no sympathy for the German tradition of solidarity and cooperation with employees. The powerful IG Metall union with 2.3 million members in Germany is preparing for battle.
Union pushed aside
In the US, unions never got a foot in the door at Tesla. To a certain extent, this has been successful with the other car manufacturers in the US. In Germany, workers' power extends much further: to the top of the company.
Without far-reaching employee control, Tesla has a competitive advantage over the German car giants. Tesla could even become a danger to IG Metall that extends beyond the workplace of the American company. For established names from car country Germany, it may be an opportunity to curtail the power of the unions in the current times of major changes.
The fact that Tesla has little influence from employee representatives is evident from the experience at Grohmann in Germany. Tesla took over this German machine manufacturer three years ago. But there are still no collective labor agreements for employees.
Musk's charm offensive
The litmus test is the European car and car battery factory near Berlin that is due to open next year. Tesla is one of the most important investors ever in East Germany and that has garnered admiration in Germany. On Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk in Berlin was awarded a prize by publisher Axel Springer.
Much is at stake for the German economy. Tesla can spur growth in the region and act as a magnet. With the construction of the new factory in Grünheide, Tesla has managed to bypass a slow licensing bureaucracy. Construction simply started without all permits.
Hijacking experts
The new German car factory promises work for tens of thousands of people. Tesla has begun to recruit senior staff at relatively high salaries. To the dismay of colleagues, Tesla has stolen a key figure from Daimler. It led to a demonstration of car workers. Musk said this week that half a million new electric cars a year will roll out of the factory by 2022. The battery factory will be "the largest battery factory in the world", the CEO boasted. Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has promised to do everything possible to get the factory up and running by mid-2021. They will be German cars, Altmaier said. The American company, which competes with German car giants such as VW, BMW and Daimler, can look forward to a high but unknown amount of subsidy with its green story.
Non-Disclosure
Musk regularly shows his face in Berlin, but from Tesla there is hardly any communication with the outside world. Tesla expects secrecy from employees and even concerned politicians and officials. The Dutch engineering company Arcadis has been appointed to communicate with local residents. But the client has expressly forbidden talking about this with third parties. IG Metall reached out in March for cooperation with Tesla, but nothing has come out yet. The metal union is looking for the support of new employees for a representation in the new factory under construction. Tesla has established a European company that allows it to accept less employee control than a German company. An employee seat on the supervisory board, as is customary in Germany, can thus be avoided.
IG Metall fears that Tesla will operate in the same way as Amazon, which operates without collective agreements for its warehouse workers, union officials said in the German press.
Tesla does not seem to want to pay worse salaries for lower staff. But collective bargaining agreements do not seem to want it. According to unions, Tesla has a lot of leeway to get his way through the secondary employment conditions.
How influential employee representatives are in Germany is shown by the current conflict at VW. CEO Herbert Diess argues about policy and appointments with the powerful chairman of the Works Council, Bernd Osterloh, who is supported by the IG Metall trade union. Nowhere else do employees have as much co-determination as he does the VW group.
https://fd.nl/ondernemen/1366237/tesla-op-ramkoers-met-duitse-traditie-van-ondernemen-en-zeggenschap
