Stormy times at Tesla in Germany.Image: www.imago-images.de
A controversy between Tesla in Germany and the IG Metall union has escalated. The union is now making serious allegations against Elon Musk’s US company.
Feb 11, 2026, 10:29Feb 11, 2026, 10:31 am
The dispute between the US electric car manufacturer Tesla and the German union IG Metall is coming to a head a few weeks before the works council elections. The company accuses an external union representative of secretly recording a works council meeting on Tuesday. Tesla filed a criminal complaint, according to an internal communication to employees available to the Reuters news agency.
Tesla factory manager Andre Thierig wrote that the union representative was caught taking the photo by an “attentive works council member”. The police confiscated the computer and recorded witness statements.
Union accuses Tesla of a “smear campaign”.
The union, however, speaks of a “smear campaign”. “This claim is a blatant and calculated lie,” explained the group “IG Metall – Tesla Workers GFBB” in the Tesla works council.
A works council member of the employers’ faction suddenly claimed that the union secretary was recording the meeting. “The rest seemed like a set-up game to us: the works council chairwoman gave her colleague no opportunity to refute the allegations.” Instead, the meeting was interrupted and plant security and the police were called. Although IG Metall is represented on the Tesla works council, it does not represent the majority there.
In Germany, the works council is the elected representative of the interests of employees in companies. It has significantly more power than the employee representatives in Swiss companies. Tesla is therefore trying to prevent the union representatives of the powerful IG Metall from gaining a majority in the Tesla works council with works councils that are friendly to the company.
“Fake allegations”
Jan Otto, head of the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district, said the union was used to tough election campaigns. “But here all measure and apparently all democratic consciousness have been lost,” he said.
Management cannot win with fair means and is now resorting to such methods. “Influencing elections with fabricated allegations reminds us of the actions of authoritarian regimes.” The fact that the police are being forced to investigate is absurd. “We are already taking legal action against those responsible for this smear campaign.”
Already last year there was turmoil
At the beginning of March, a new works council will be elected at Tesla, in which IG Metall will compete with its list and hopes for a majority. The year-long conflict between the Tesla factory management and IG Metall led to tumult as early as 2025. At that time a trade unionist was from the security service removed during a Tesla meeting. IG Metall was upset because Tesla was said to have withheld the wages of sick employees. German media reported threatening letters to sick employees.
Tesla boss Elon Musk deliberately keeps unions out of his operations in the USA. He has repeatedly threatened organized employees with a withdrawal of their share packages. When Tesla workers went on strike in Sweden and Finland for the first time, Musk described it on his Platform X as “completely sick”. In previous statements he had also suggested that IG Metall was just a tool of the German car manufacturers.
Tesla had to cut jobs
Tesla is fighting in Europe massively falling sales figures. The Tesla factory in Germany is therefore, according to one Report from Spiegel Online Far from being fully utilized, a previously announced expansion is currently no longer an issue. End of January German media made it publicthat Tesla recently cut around 1,700 jobs in Germany. Internal documents showed job cuts of almost 14 percent.
Sources used:
- Reuters news agency