Nonunion Tesla buys UAW union hall adjacent to factory formerly employing union members
Here's a Tesla feel good story for ya, Rat. Aren't you glad your tax dollars are supporting this non-union maker of toys for rich people?
By Thomas Lifson
Call the irony police! Tesla Motors, the non-union manufacturer of innovative, stylish, and highly rated cars is buying the former union hall of the United Auto Workers next door to its factory. That plant in Fremont, California was built by General Motors, and was later sold to the GM-Toyota joint venture NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), and employed thousands of UAW members, until it was shut down. Tesla now operates with a nonunion workforce.
Autoblog.com notes (hat tip: Instapundit):
According to public records uncovered by the San Francisco Business Times, the company recently bought the property for an undisclosed sum. The UAW was reportedly asking $4.26 million for the nearly four-acre plot, including the 16,470-square-foot building. About 1.3 acres of the land is still undeveloped.
That’s a mighty impressive facility, befitting a wealthy union frown fat in the high dues of thousands of members.
Tesla is building a massive new factory to produce lithium-ion batteries, one of the priciest factors in an electric car’s cost structure, and expects to drive down the cost substantially. However, the factory will not be located near the Fremont facility Instead, it will be just over the state line in Nevada, where taxes and the regulatory climate are far better than in California.
Tesla has a lot of cachet among the affluent trendies. In Silicon Valley, they are a major status symbol, and can be seen on the streets quite often; they sell for nearly $100k, though the company promises lower prices on a new model.
The UAW, through its insistence on high wages and job protection, did a lot to send the US auto industry into decline. How fitting the the most exciting and trendy auto manufacturer has eschewed them.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/nonunion_tesla_buys_uaw_union_hall_adjacent_to_factory_formerly_employing_union_members.html#ixzz3NrcDHcRW
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