Union group says Tesla unfairly hiring non-Nevada workers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: RGJ

Yvonne Beasley and Anjeanette Damon

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.

"Nobody is working today," said protester Gerald Gonzales.

About 100 workers were picketing, many of whom have spent months working on the gigafactory project, according to the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern 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.

FULL story and video at link.


Picketers protest Monday, Feb. 29, 2016 at the Tesla Gigafactory site near Reno. They represent a construction union and say Tesla has unfairly hired out-of-state workers.
(Photo: Anjeanette Damon/RGJ)

Read more: http://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2016/02/29/union-group-says-tesla-unfairly-hiring-non-nevada-workers/81105706/

[Phlem]

1. K&R for visibility.

Thanks Steve!

Seems to be the M.O. & S.O.P. for most of American Corporations.

[a kennedy]

2. D*mn......this isn't good.

If this is true, my love of the Tesla is dropping.

[Recursion]

3. SEIU headquarters was picketed by the carpenters for about a year

for some construction they did.

Mr. Payne, the ironworker interviewed in the video, says the GC was supposed to hire "mostly" Nevada workers, which tells me the contract wasn't negotiated well.

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. K & R, OS

[Travis_0004]

5. Is 26% out of state all that high for a project this size

I would assume on a project of several million sq ft, contractors from all over are biding on jobs.

[father founding]

6. misleading

Doesn't seem to be Tesla, but a sleazy subcontractor.

[JDPriestly]

7. Is it legal for a state to require a company to only or mostly hire established residents

for its projects?

That seems a bit strange to me. We are all Americans whether we live in Nevada, New Mexico or any other state. How can a state require the hiring on a project of only residents or even mostly residents of its state even if the project is funded by state taxes?

Does this union have legal representation with regard to this?

Does anybody know about this?

[Xithras]

14. No, it's illegal for a state to have laws or regulations banning out of state workers.

Back during the Depression, California passed a law prohibiting employers from bringing in out of state employees to do work in state. The purpose of the law was to reduce the number of Okies flowing into the state, and to improve the job market for California residents.

The Supreme Court ruled on the law in Edwards v. California (1941). The court decided that out of state workers were "items of commerce", and as such the regulation of inter-state labor was under federal and not state authority. They decided that the law illegally regulated interstate commerce and struck it down. Five of the justices ALSO smacked the law on 14th Amendment grounds, stating that it violated that amendments equal protection clause by failing to extend equal rights and consideration to all American citizens.

[JDPriestly]

15. I thought so. Those were the so-called (by me) "truck cases."

Thanks.

[rollin74]

16. it has to do with the tax incentive deal that was reached between the state and Tesla

the state isn't prohibiting workers from out of state but if less than 50% of workers at the gigafactory are not Nevada residents then the state of Nevada could cancel some of the tax breaks that Tesla would otherwise get. Tesla agreed to the conditions of the agreement

many of the tax incentives become available over time as benchmarks (hiring and spending) are met

so far, it seems that it isn't an issue because a large majority of workers there currently are Nevada residents. There was an audit released in December and Tesla is meeting it's hiring requirements

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

8. Misleading headline. Elon Musk has NOTHING to do with this.

[Omaha Steve]

11. Is he telling the contractor to knock it off?

I'm sure that is what the workers want.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

12. I really am not following the story.

I just know that when you pass a job to a contractor, you don't necessarily know every detail of how they do the job, or who they hire.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Maybe we need a wall between NV and AZ

Or, a big ditch and moat.

Er, wait ...

[packman]

10. Did those out-of-staters show their passports to the union bosses?

I'm a union man, always was and always will be, but damn this is just wrong.

[anigbrowl]

13. I see nothing unfair about this

As long as they are working in Nevada, they're subject to Nevada state laws, same as people who are from Nevada. It never bothers me to work alongside someone who's been hired from elsewhere, possibly because they already have work history with the person who hired them.