Lots of Dems Love Elon Musk...but, does he use Union Workers to Build his Tesla Cars?
I've read a lot about Musk and how he's a Hero for Not supporting TransCanada Pipeline (Keystone XL here in USA) ...But, his energy efficient car is causing controversy in states where he wants to cut out the "Car Dealers" and sell his Tesla over the internet. Big thing in NC where 80 High Rollers of the 1% are being hit back by NC Car Dealers selling cars to the rest of us 99% are enraged that he wants to sell his car on his own, cutting out the Middle Dealer and costing jobs.
But, with his "Space X Program" and some other enterprises he is touted as "The Future of America."
But, I Googled: "Does Elon Musk Use Union Workers to Build his Tesla Cars?" And, this is one interesting article that I found. There are others but this one was from a Business Site...so though some folks here might find it interesting.
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General Electric Motors
Tesla has high hopes for its high-spec electric cars
FROM THE 1960s to the 1980s it was a General Motors plant. From then until 2010 it was used by GM and Toyota to make cars jointly. Now the giant carmaking factory at Fremont in Silicon Valley is in its third incarnation, as the manufacturing base of Tesla Motors, a maker of electric cars set up by Elon Musk, a founder of PayPal and of SpaceX, a rocket-maker.
Mr Musk is a man of big ideas. His long-term aim is to help colonise Mars and die peacefully there. His entry into carmaking, an industry that has been the graveyard of many ambitions, is almost as bold. Mr Musk set up Tesla to hasten what he sees as the motor industry’s inevitable switch to battery power. Having started with expensive sports cars, to be followed next year by an equally upmarket sport-utility vehicle, the plan is eventually to move to more mass-market models and become a sort of “General Electric Motors
So far Tesla is using only a quarter of the Fremont plant’s vast area. This year it plans to make just 20,000 cars as it concentrates on moving into profit. Mr Musk acquired the factory for $42m, far less than it would have cost to build, and bought lots of second-hand equipment.
Tesla is doing a lot of things differently from the mainstream carmakers. It produces many key parts in-house, from the battery packs to the slick touch-screen control panels. It is setting up a network of free fast-recharging points for its customers to top up their batteries on the road. It is battling America’s powerful car-dealership lobby so it can set up its own retail outlets. And it is aiming to get its products from the drawing-board to the assembly line at the speed of Silicon Valley tech firms rather than the statelier pace of Detroit’s car giants. Tesla’s manufacturing chief, Gilbert Passin, says the Model S moved from first design to production in just over two years, something he reckons would take a traditional carmaker five or six years.
AND Here's the Key to what Tesla Production could mean for Union Workers:
Working in Tesla’s favour is its lack of baggage of any kind. It has no internal-combustion technology to defend, and thus no problem in reaching regulators’ ever tighter targets for fuel efficiency. It has no inherited pension and health-care liabilities and no auto workers’ union. In the past premium car brands have typically taken decades to establish themselves, but perhaps the “millennial” generation, used to seeing new smartphones rise and old ones fall, will be more open to start-up brands, especially ones from Silicon Valley.
More at....
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21576218-tesla-has-high-hopes-its-high-spec-electric-cars-general-electric-motors
= new reply since forum marked as read
Is it competitive. Health Care, Pension, Workers rights? Does he employ former Auto Workers from GM or other Car Companies or does he train his own workers?
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Response to KoKo (Original post)
