Hundreds walk off Tesla job in Nevada labor dispute

The protest came from a local labor union that is against Tesla outsourcing some of its jobs to a third-party nonunion contractor, Brycon Construction.

Union construction workers walked off the job at the Tesla gigafactory near Reno on Monday to protest what they describe as an out-of-state contractor bringing in workers from Arizona and New Mexico.

Union officials said work at Tesla’s gigafactory is increasingly being done by crews for the non-union, New Mexico-based Brycon Corp.

However, the automaker’s statement also emphasized that the walkout had nothing to do with the company’s treatment of the workers.

That’s backed up by the latest state audit of the project, which showed during the last quarter 74% of the almost 900 workers employed at the site were from Nevada, adding that Tesla was in full compliance with the agreement. “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”.

According to James, Brycon’s strategy is simply a means for the company to save money since workers from other states might be more willing to accept lower wages than those residing in Nevada.

The action was to protest Nevada money being used to import site workers from New Mexico, said Todd Koch, the union group’s president.

James said they are trying to make this a local vs non-local jobs issue rather than union vs non-union issue. “Most of the guys from out of state probably have no health insurance and no pension benefits, so that alone could be a difference of $10 an hour even if you pay the same wages”.

The Gigafactory being constructed in Nevada is set to play a huge part in Tesla’s thrust towards its domination in the clean and renewable energy market.

It said three-fourths of the entire “gigafactory” workforce is from Nevada. He said he could not provide specifics or estimate the number of workers they have assigned to the Nevada site.

Tesla’s spokesperson said the company is committed to hiring Nevadans, above what’s required by state law for this project. Union leaders will see how Tesla reacts before deciding when to return to work, James said. “It would depend on their action. If they choose not to do that, I don’t know”.