Elon Musk in union spat after wrongly calling Tesla worker a paid agitator

The United Automobile Workers union has said it was approached by workers at the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont, California – rejecting a charge by the Elon Musk that a worker who publicly criticised the company was on the UAW payroll.

The move to organise at the electric car factory shines an unwelcome spotlight on allegations of long hours, mandatory overtime and preventable injuries at a time when Tesla is accelerating production to meet ambitious targets.

The Fremont factory was once a UAW-represented operation owned by General Motors but became non-union when Tesla took over in 2010.

The attempts to organise come as Tesla plans to idle the factory for a week to prepare for production of the high-volume Model 3 sedan. Tesla already builds Model S sedans and Model X SUVs at the plant.

Musk is pushing to launch Model 3 production by July. He has projected output will reach 500,000 vehicles a year by 2018, roughly five times last year’s production.

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