Tesla has released a blog post claiming that the layoffs of employees at Gigafactory New York were planned before the company was aware of the unionization effort. The automaker issued a statement denying allegations that it fired workers due to unionizing efforts. Tesla announced that the layoffs were part of its six-month performance review cycle, in which employees receive a rating that helps them calibrate their work to their job’s expectations. Managers received communication about the review schedule on December 13, 2022, which included information that exits for low performers would start the week of February 12, 2023. The impacted employees were identified on February 3, 2023, which was well before the union campaign was announced. Approximately 4% of the employees on the Autopilot labeling team in Buffalo were exited as a result of this performance review cycle. Tesla has claimed that despite feedback, these employees failed to demonstrate sufficient improvement.

This comes after Tesla workers doing Autopilot data annotation at Gigafactory New York announced their intention to unionize, and organizers behind the unionization effort filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming that Tesla fired dozens of employees at the plant in retaliation for the union push. Tesla Workers United, the new union, filed the complaint, listing the names of 18 employees that it charges were fired “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity.” However, the union stated that more than 30 employees were fired. According to CNN Business, the fired employees worked on labeling data collected as part of Tesla’s Autopilot technology. Union supporters have objected to productivity expectations they describe as “unfair, unattainable, ambiguous, and ever-changing” and the company allegedly monitoring their keystrokes to measure their work.

Tesla has denied these allegations, but the plant in Buffalo does not build cars. Besides the Autopilot labeling work, it builds solar panels and related products. The new union has received support from the Starbucks Workers United union and the Service Employees International Union. In the past, Tesla has been accused of illegally firing union supporters at its plant in California, its first to build cars. But efforts to organize that plant have fallen short of the union’s filing to hold votes among employees there. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized unions in tweets, one of which the NLRB ordered him to delete three years after it was posted.