FRANKFURT — Germany’s largest and strongest union, IG Metall, has set its sights on establishing a works council at Tesla’s new European manufacturing facility, its head Joerg Hofmann mentioned.

Tesla plans to construct as much as 500,000 automobiles a yr on the manufacturing facility in Gruenheide close to Berlin. The EV maker is at the moment hiring for the plant, which is able to make use of 12,000 folks.

Organized labor shall be a difficulty for Tesla in Germany, the place unions have vital say over strategic issues.

“Thus far I’ve not been in touch with [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk. Tesla is now hiring in Gruenheide, within the land of co-determination and collective bargaining agreements. Tesla’s administration is aware of this,” Hofmann instructed Reuters.

IG Metall “will set up a works council with staff and set up them,” Hofmann mentioned.

Tesla was not instantly obtainable for remark.

Hofmann mentioned that whereas significant talks with Tesla in Germany weren’t simple attributable to quite a few management modifications which have taken place on the automaker, IG Metall welcomed Tesla’s determination to determine itself in Germany.

“It is the primary large funding in a brand new manufacturing facility within the automotive sector because the flip of the millennium,” Hofmann mentioned.

He mentioned that discovering expert employees in Germany can be a problem, including Tesla should adhere to the requirements of the native labor market.

Hofmann’s feedback got here after a report in Enterprise Insider mentioned that German authorities are probing attainable violations of labor legal guidelines on the Gruenheide web site.

Tesla mentioned in April that manufacturing was on observe to begin in late 2021, as a substitute of its earlier goal of July. However the manufacturing facility will not be anticipated to start production until the end of January 2022 attributable to issues in getting the plant prepared for battery pack manufacturing and gaining regulatory approval, sources instructed Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive Information Europe.

In October, Tesla’s government overseeing building of the Gruenheide manufacturing facility left his position, a supply accustomed to the matter mentioned on the time, following the departure of Jochen Rudat, head of Germany, a yr earlier.

Germany’s co-determination regulation permits for works councils to be established at corporations if staff agree. Worker representatives sit on the supervisory boards at Volkswagen Group, Daimler and BMW.