Tesla uses security in shuttle buses to the Grünheide gigafactory

After the bus chaos we experienced, we now travel on the shuttle buses to Gigafabrik Grünheide Security. At the same time, factory management and the works council hold the employees accountable.

Grünheide. The US electric car manufacturer Tesla is deploying security personnel on the busiest shuttle lines to its gigafactory in Grünheide. Security has been traveling with us since this week and will initially stay for a few weeks. Plant manager André Thierig announced this at a works meeting on Thursday.

The security forces are supposed to protect employees and bus drivers. There is also an additional bus on the connection to Fangschleuse train station, and Tesla has hired two additional drivers for this. The group is also rebuilding its shuttle system around the new train station.

At the beginning of September, employees reported in internal chats about overcrowded buses, crowds and scuffles at the stops. A window shattered on a shuttle heading to Berlin. One employee wrote: “Damn, put security in there to at least keep some order.”

Tesla left questions from the Handelsblatt unanswered at the time. Internally, a person responsible announced a security concept. Now Thierig said the topic had “exploded” in the internal chat and “even found its way into the newspaper.” He sent “best regards” to the Handelsblatt.

The employees' behavior was discussed in detail at the works meeting. Works council leader Michaela Schmitz reported complaints that had been received for weeks. “Here there is pushing and shoving, the bus drivers are insulted, and in the end the strongest ones get through.”

Others stayed behind. “Our deaf people and our female employees stand outside and wait for the next bus, which usually comes a minute or two later,” said Schmitz. “Well, I don’t think it works that way.”

The free buses are an additional service that Tesla is not obliged to provide. “It’s a privilege for all of us, not a right.” Schmitz extended her appeal to behavior outside the factory premises: “You should behave appropriately, especially when you are out and about wearing Tesla clothes.”

Thierig immediately followed up on this. “The journey to work is fundamentally the employee’s responsibility and not the employer’s responsibility to make it possible,” he said. The buses, like the former Gigatrain and the company's own fitness studio, are "voluntary services".

The plant manager sees problems, especially in the gym. Employees climbed over the turnstiles, brought their own loudspeakers, trained without towels and posed in front of the mirror in such a way that others felt disturbed. “This is simply not appropriate behavior.”

If the workforce does not use the facilities responsibly, “regardless of whether it is the gym or the buses,” Tesla will react. “Then we have to think about what changes we need to make,” said Thierig. “Because we as employers cannot tolerate that.”

This tone was also used on other topics. Schmitz called the condition of some corners on the site “a huge mess”. When asked about more charging stations, a manager referred to high costs and employees who charged the battery despite 80 percent or used the charging spaces as shaded parking spaces. This is “primarily a question of behavior”.

At the same time, Tesla is restructuring its factory traffic. A dedicated bus station is set to open next week at Fangschleuse train station. Employees then pass through a Tesla turnstile there, and shuttles take them directly to their hall instead of to the south parking lot.

In the future, timetables should be based on when the buses are actually used, and not just on shift changes. Many employees take an earlier bus to go to the gym before their shift. “Sure, they want to go to the gym before work, I understand that too,” said Thierig.

The internal chatbot “Gigamate” now calculates the connection from the front door to the hall and uses GPS to show where the bus is currently. Tesla is not responsible for the fact that some regional trains recently did not stop at the catch gate. You read the internal transport chat, but you would like the tone there to be respectful. “It’s no use just complaining.”

Tesla continues to hire to ramp up the plant. According to the plant management, the plant has already hired 1,000 employees for the first stage of 6,200 vehicles per week. For the step up to 7,500 vehicles per week from October, around 1,000 more jobs will be added. About half of them have already been hired. According to Tesla, around every second employee gets to work by local transport.

In an internal chat, an employee had already summed up the situation in one sentence on September 4th. “It’s a daily escalation.” According to Thierig, the security personnel should now also help to understand: “What is really the problem?”