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New Tesla Model S Plaid

Tesla Fired Dozens In Buffalo Plant On Day After Union Campaign Launch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_MuskLike freakin’ clockwork. It took one day between a group of Buffalo Tesla workers informing the company of their intent to unionize and Tesla firing more than 30 workers in that plant, including a member of the union organizing committee.

Workers United, the union the workers are affiliating with, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Tesla “terminated these individuals in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity,” and seeking an injunction blocking the firings. According to More Perfect Union, “Tesla managers announced surprise performance reviews, then fired 8x as many workers as usual.”

This is not the first time Tesla has engaged in apparent retaliatory firing for union activity, and Tesla isn’t the only Elon Musk company to have fired workers for speaking up.

In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla had illegally fired a union activist and that a tweet from Musk had illegally threatened workers with the loss of stock options if they unionized. Tesla is appealing that ruling, which came from two Republicans and one Democrat.

In 2022, unfair labor practice charges were filed claiming that SpaceX had fired eight workers in retaliation for a letter about the company’s sexual harassment policies generally and specifically about Musk’s tweets dismissing a report that SpaceX had settled a sexual harassment complaint against him. Those cases are pending. And, of course, at Twitter, Musk has repeatedly fired people who didn’t kiss the ring enthusiastically enough.

In the narrow window of time between the Buffalo Tesla workers—who work on the Autopilot system—going public with their union drive and the company firing a significant number of workers in the plant, Tesla issued a warning to workers to “protect the confidentiality, integrity and security of all Tesla Business Information.” It’s not clear what that was about, but it doesn’t sound coincidental either.

“I feel blindsided,” one of the fired workers, Arian Berek, said in a statement. “I got COVID and was out of the office, then I had to take a bereavement leave. I returned to work, was told I was exceeding expectations and then Wednesday came along.”

Another member of the organizing committee who was not fired (yet) said the effort to intimidate workers away from union activism was backfiring, Bloomberg reports.

“It’s pretty clear the message they’re sending. They’re trying to scare us,” Sara Costantino said. “And it’s really I think backfiring on them.”
“It has really opened people’s eyes to the fact that this is why we need a union.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is organized labor?

A. Organized labor refers to groups of workers who come together to advocate for their rights and improve their working conditions.

Q. What is anti-union activity?

A. Anti-union activity refers to actions taken by employers to discourage workers from forming or joining a union.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tucker Carlson

Why The Buffalo Massacre Marks Decision Point For Fox Advertisers

On Monday, Fox executives pitched the nation’s media buyers on purchasing the network’s ads for the next year at their annual upfronts presentation. The Fox brass were bound to desperately try to ignore the elephant in the room: The event opened roughly 48 hours after a white supremacist gunman whose manifesto details the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory popularized and mainstreamed by the network’s biggest star, Tucker Carlson, killed ten people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

Those media buyers, like anyone else doing business with Fox, should recognize that the network’s highest priority is producing this brand of white nationalist propaganda. Their ongoing willingness to buy Fox’s ads is a crucial part of the network’s business strategy.

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and network CEO Suzanne Scott have ignored any number of warning signs and protests from inside and outside the network that Carlson’s white nationalist rants were dangerous, as The New York Timesdetailed earlier this month. They have an affinity for his views, appreciate his ratings and the money he generates — or both — and so have given him the green light to do as he pleases.

The only thing that could plausibly make them stop is if doing so stops being so profitable. Until that happens, Carlson knows they have his back, and he can laugh off people who point out that his show promotes the grievances and worldview of neo-Nazis.

I've been covering white supremacists' affinity for Tucker Carlson, and his eagerness to promote their depraved talking points, for more than five years. They consider him “our greatest ally,” as the neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin put it, because he brings their message to the masses. This is not the first time a white supremacist gunman has carried out a massacre because he shares the twisted ideology Carlson and his colleagues promote at the network — and it likely will not be the last.

As I wrote two weeks ago: “The Murdochs, Carlson, and their colleagues are not going to stop. They’re going to keep promoting white nationalism. And everyone in business with Fox should be clear-eyed that their ongoing participation is part of the network’s strategy.”

Media buyers and advertisers need to decide how comfortable they are with that. But at this point, there’s no denying it.


Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Blizzard-Weary Americans Brave More Snow As Eight Die

Blizzard-Weary Americans Brave More Snow As Eight Die

New York (AFP) – Americans smothered in mountains of snow after a stunning blizzard hit the northeast are in for more of the white stuff through the end of the week.

Tuesday’s monster storm in and around Buffalo, New York, dumped more than five feet of snow, stranding scores of motorists, canceling flights and killing at least eight people around Lake Erie in the northeastern United States.

A few more feet fell Wednesday, and the National Weather Service said in its latest update that “impressive lake effect snowfall continues across the eastern Great Lakes on Thursday and through Friday morning.

“Up to three feet of additional snowfall is forecast for some locations,” it added.

Areas east and southeast of Buffalo could receive a year’s snow or even more in just two days, Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz told reporters Wednesday.

The deadly burst, named Winter Storm Knife, may see as much as another three feet (one meter) of snowfall on Thursday, which could prompt a federal disaster declaration, Poloncarz said.

The Arctic blast will keep temperatures below normal until the weekend, with all 50 states recording below freezing temperatures on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

A state of emergency and travel bans are in effect across Buffalo’s Erie County and authorities ordered people to stay at home to allow crews to clear roads, repair power lines and provide emergency assistance to the most vulnerable.

County spokesman Peter Anderson said runways at Buffalo Niagara International Airport were open, but that “a lot of flights” were being canceled because people cannot get to the airport.

The National Guard was called in to assist with military Humvee vehicles after New York’s transportation department worked through the night to rescue stranded motorists and take people to shelters.

“This is something that we’re not going to be able to solve on our own. Many communities are still in a very difficult, in some ways paralyzed situation,” Poloncarz said.

“From a public health standpoint this has been a killer storm. We’ve had six deaths in the area, five of which have been preventable,” said Erie county health commissioner Gale Burstein.

Three of those who died suffered heart attacks while shoveling snow and another person died while using a snowplow.

U.S. media reported two other deaths in the states of New Hampshire and Michigan.

Dave Zaff, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, said areas east and southeast of Buffalo city received upwards of five feet (1.5 meters) of snow.

“That is somewhat of an extreme event,” he told AFP. “From a forecast standpoint, it will be historic.

“The impact alone when you have hundreds of thousands of people stranded, roads closed everywhere, you start to get fatalities,” he said.

“It becomes a very memorable event that people will never forget.”

A university women’s basketball team was eventually rescued after spending more than 24 hours trapped in a bus on a highway.

And New York-based rock band Interpol was among those trapped in the snowstorm outside Buffalo overnight, forcing them to cancel a concert across the Canadian border in Toronto.

“Still trapped yo! Haven’t really moved in 30 hours and we’ve been on the bus for nearly 40 hours. Nutso. Never seen anything like it,” the band said on Twitter.

One young woman in Buffalo tweeting from @SpecialCassie said her father had finally made it home after spending nearly 40 hours stuck in a car.

“Snow to his shoulders, had to climb a tree to get out,” she wrote.

AFP Photo/John Normile