Let’s not assume Tesla treats its workers badly though. I’ve talked to Tesla workers and they were very happy.
The union is just butthurt that Tesla is not unionized and has happy workers.
You’ll find plenty of negative media if you look, but there are reasons those stories get planted and promoted, reasons having little to do with truth.
If this were the case, it would be newsworthy in itself. Every strike involves the membership voting on whether they will. I'd wager it is 99%+ of union bylaws. Additionally, it is in NLRB laws (I know this is in Sweden), but given that US union laws are some of the weaker in the developed world...
> the Smith-Connally Act requires 30-day notice of an intention to strike and required that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) conduct a secret-ballot vote among the members of the bargaining unit on the major issues in bargaining prior to the strike.
A union leadership that says "We know you guys are totally happy but you know what, you have to strike anyway" is not leadership that stays long - even if they have the ability to unilaterally to do so.
You might see it as a cop out, but I'd argue the onus is on you to show that there was no vote, and workers are happy but having to strike anyway.
Yes, I understand there's usually a union vote before a strike. To clarify, you said, "Tesla's "happy workers" had to vote on it and decided to."
In a sense, that's probably true. But also maybe members of IF Metall at large voted on this, not just Tesla workers. After all, IF Metall stopped union members at other service shops than Tesla from working on Teslas. If so, then it could be that there indeed were "happy Tesla workers" who voted against it but must abide the union rules. We know there are service technicians working for Tesla who are unhappy with the strike ( https://www.na.se/2023-11-16/tesla-ar-den-basta-arbetsgivare... ).
Very cool /s