REUTERS/James Glover II
Local labor leaders are upset that Tesla contractor Brycon Corp. is bringing in workers from Arizona and New Mexico, said Todd Koch, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada.
... Construction work at the $5 billion, 10-million-square-foot factory has been proceeding ahead of schedule. Tesla said in an e-mailed statement that the nonunion contractor involved in the dispute Monday, which it didn't identify by name, is using more than 50 percent Nevada workers and that more than 75 percent of the factory workforce is residents of that state. Tesla didn't say how the walkout is affecting work at the site.
However, the automaker's statement also emphasized that the walkout had nothing to do with the company's treatment of the workers.
The Gigafactory will get up to $1.25 billion in tax breaks over the next 20 years from the state of Nevada, as long as it employs 6,500 in-state workers, Bloomberg reported.