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Tesla plant in Grünheide: IG Metall considers the date of the works council election to be too early
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
According to the IG Metall union, the works council elections at Tesla’s German plant are scheduled to take place on February 28.
The electoral board announced this date via the published election notice, said the head of the IG Metall district of Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony, Birgit Dietze.
The union supports the establishment of a works council, said Dietze.
However, from the point of view of IG Metall, the time of the election was too early because the workforce was only just being built up.
Only employees who were already on board at the end of August 2021 can apply.
At that time not many workers were employed in production.
It is therefore possible that the future works council will not reflect the workforce, Dietze warned again.
"For IG Metall, it is important that works councils represent the entire workforce." Around 2,000 people currently work at the Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin, which could soon start up after the final approval is pending.
In total, however, there will be up to 12,000 jobs there.
Vehicles have been produced at the plant since November, but for internal tests.
According to Tesla, the start of mass production was always planned for 2022, but CEO Elon Musk had hoped to start producing the first cars for the market as early as December 2021.
A decision on the permit for the plant is expected in the coming weeks.
According to the Brandenburg state government, the group had submitted the missing documents for the approval process at the end of 2021.
The documents would be checked, among other things, by the State Office for the Environment and the lower water authority of the Oder-Spree district, said a spokesman for the state government at the time.
fdi/Reuters
