Tesla Giga Berlin worker council gets a win as 500 temp workers are made permanent

Tesla has announced that it will permanently hire 500 temporary workers at Gigafactory Berlin, a win for the local worker council.

Tesla made the announcement today (via Reuters)”

Tesla on Thursday said it would give permanent jobs from Nov. 1 to 500 temporary workers at its German gigafactory near Berlin, in what the U.S. electric carmaker called an “optimistic assessment of the further development of e-car production”.

The move was made at the request of the worker’s council at Gigafactory Berlin.

In Germany, there’s a sort of union structure where employees form local worker councils to negotiate management. They are not necessarily linked to a broader union, but unions can be influential within a worker’s council.

Earlier this year, a majority of Tesla Gigafactory Berlin workers voted against union representatives of IG Metall in their new work council, but the union has still made significant progress securing about 40% of the seats on the council.

Tesla. which is notoriously anti-unions, made sure to let everyone know that IG Metall had nothing to do with this decision to permanently hire 500 current temporary workers.

It’s more about the company’s confidence in its business. Tesla said:

At a time when many companies are talking about job cuts and plant closures, the news that a further 500 people will be offered a long-term perspective at Tesla in a permanent position is particularly pleasing.

At Gigafactory Berlin, Tesla is currently only producing the Model Y for European markets. The production rate is believed to be about 5,000 units per week.

The company employs about 12,000 people at the factory.

CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that Tesla might bring production of the Tesla Semi, its electric class 8 truck, at the factory for European distribution.