By Victoria Waldersee

BERLIN (Reuters). A Tesla staff works council is being established near Berlin. However, the majority of employees at Gruenheide’s new Gruenheide facility in Gruenheide are senior or middle managers. This was warned Tuesday by Germany’s biggest union.

IG Metall said seven Tesla employees, none of whom were its members, had called a meeting for Monday to choose a committee to run elections https://reut.rs/3oVsGf8 for a council that would remain in position for at least two years.

“We’re happy there’s been a starting shot,” Birgit Dietze, head of IG Metall’s regional office for Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony where Tesla’s factory https://reut.rs/30XbqxO is located, told Reuters.

“It’s crucial that all workers have access to the workers’ council… it seems a bit too early for us.”

Tesla didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

German labor law requires that employees stay at the company for six consecutive months to run in an election for a works council. This means any new body will likely be controlled by managers, according to the union.

Dietze stated that a new election cannot be called until after two years and then only if the workforce has increased by more than twice. IG Metall claims that Tesla has employed about one out six of the expected 12,000 workers.

As it waits for approval from the local authorities, the U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer is currently operating at Gruenheide with pre-approval permits. Tesla anticipates receiving final approval for production by 2021.

Chief Executive Elon Musk has sparred with organised labour in the past and was ordered https://reut.rs/3xhTFFk in March to delete a tweet from 2018 threatening to strip U.S. employees of their stock options if they formed a union.

IG Metall opened an office in Gruenheide earlier this year for support. Dietze stated that the union wouldn’t have supported setting up a work council until there was a larger pool of workers.