The really bad news is that the elections to the works council at Tesla in the 9,000-people-strong East German town of Grünheide are over. The bitter result is that Elon Musk won and workers lost.

Candidates of Germany’s metalworkers’ union IG Metall (IGM) fell back to second place in the vote at Grünheide. While management remains profoundly undemocratic, workers were able to vote for their representatives in the works council. Yet the anti-union pro-Musk candidates won the day – with plenty of outside manipulation by Musk and his hyper-arrogant macho management at Tesla. Both are potentially illegal under German law.

IG Metall is now considering legal action against Tesla because of the massive influence exercised by Tesla’s management during the election. This is different from the USA. The idea is that management stays out of this so that workers can make up their minds about whom to vote for on their works council. Works councils are not management bodies. They are independent of management. They are not to be prejudiced by management – most certainly not their election.

In elections for works councils, workers vote because they are workers. They do not vote because they are union members. At Tesla, this meant that 10,703 workers were able to take part in the election.

Yet in the works council elections at Tesla in Grünheide, the pro-business list of the current works council chairperson – the Musk stooge, or better lackey – Michaela Schmitz – prevailed. Her anti-union grouping is called “Giga United” – perhaps insinuating that workers march united behind Elon Musk – the Führer of the factory. Musk already knows how to raise his arm in the Hitler salute.

Schmitz’ anti-worker group won 40.4% of the vote. Convinced that Musk is the messiah, she placed the “IG Metall Tesla Workers GFBB” list in second place with 31.1% of the vote – 9 percentage points less – still a bitter loss.

The result is an extremely harsh blow for IG Metall, which was once the strongest force on the Tesla works council, receiving 39.4% in the 2024 election. This time, IGM was aiming for more than 50% on the works council to be able to govern the council without the interference of Tesla’s pro-management apparatchiks.

Sadly, workers and their union did not prevail in the intensively conducted election campaign. 10,703 workers were able to take part in the election – 1,712 fewer than in the 2024 vote. Eleven lists were available as 550 candidates applied for 37 seats on the works council. Voter turnout was 87% – 6% less than in 2024.

Tesla’s plant manager had threatened workers not to elect IG Metall. IG Metall is considering legal action against Tesla’s management and its illegal meddling in works council elections that are supposed to be decided by workers without unwarranted manipulation by management.

The examination of Tesla’s propaganda campaign for “union busting” is ongoing. This process has already advanced relatively far. Germany’s rule-of-law system should not capitulate to Elon Musk.

Yet the result of the 2026 works council election is a triumph for the authoritarian Silicon Valley version of capitalism. A week before the vote, Tesla’s boss stated: “If the union comes to power here, I will not invest a penny more.” 

Perhaps in a capitalism-versus-the-law setting it becomes very clear: what does the law care if you have a fortune of $800bn? In other words, the much acclaimed “rule of law” is only wheeled out when it suits corporations.

It might well be the classical surrender of the rule of law to the whims of Musk. To smokescreen his authoritarianism, Musk claims to want free elections – just not in Grünheide. Managerial and corporate hypocrisy might be as old as corporations themselves.

All of this is not new. For two years, labour lawyers have been fighting at Tesla’s German location – in particular over unwarranted managerial spying framed as “home visits to employees” when workers are on sick leave. But also over the dismissal of works councillors. And now the threat of stopping investment should employees make “the wrong choice”. What the “right choice” is, of course, is determined by Musk: democracy Elon Musk style. No wonder Musk supports Germany’s neo-fascist AfD.

Since the previous works council chairperson Michaela Schmitz now has 16 out of 37 seats and IG Metall’s “Tesla Workers GFBB” list has 31.1% and 13 seats, management can dictate terms in the works council. IGM is down from 39.4% and shrinks from 16 to 13 seats.

In third place in this year’s elections was the “Polska Inicjatywa Giga” list, which explicitly addressed the roughly 2,000 Polish employees. It will receive three seats. The third-strongest list – “Polska Inicjatywa Giga” – positioned itself as an alternative to management and the union before the election. 

Its former deputy chairman, Hasan Sinac, accused works council chairperson Schmitz of being “too close” to management. Representing management, however, is the very idea behind Tesla’s own list. Tesla’s list is not in the pocket of management – it is management.

Uber-authoritarian Tesla boss André Thierig wasted no time on social media announcing that the outcome of the election was a “clear sign” that the workforce has “spoken out in favour of non-union participation for the next four years”.

Claiming that “our staff has shown it – and for the third time in a row – the IGM can also lose elections,” IGM interpreted the result as a clear defeat.

Tesla had used all means of propaganda on all channels – from company meetings to individual conversations with superiors to the factory radio in the toilets – to trumpet its anti-union message.

Workplace democracy has suffered as managerial manipulation took hold. The authority of Tesla’s anti-union management over workers and trade unions is rising, leading to the question of how far management may be able to shape and determine the organising of workers.

In other words, corporate management has hollowed out democracy with the power to control who votes for what. This is of great importance. A weakened or manipulated democracy inside companies would have unpleasant consequences for democracy itself, for society, and for workers.

IGM is considering a criminal complaint under Section 119 of Germany’s Works Constitution Act, which states that the obstruction of works council work and the disruption of works council elections can – at least in theory – end with a prison sentence of up to one year.

Yet such a criminal complaint must be submitted to the public prosecutor’s office within three months of becoming aware of the events. So far, nothing like this has been received at the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt (Oder).

Despite everything, IGM wants to look ahead. It will be working hard in Tesla’s new works council to ensure that something changes for workers at the Gigafactory. The long-term goal of the union remains a collective agreement. The outcome of the works council election shows that this goal has just moved further into the distance.

Everyone is aware – perhaps Tesla’s management more than the workers – that without a strong majority on Tesla’s works council IGM cannot have much effect through the council. The works council continues to be an ineffective auxiliary to management that pretends to represent workers while doing management’s bidding.

Yet class contradictions at Tesla remain rather clear. Workers demand good working conditions and fair pay. These collide with the profit interests of a billion-dollar corporation. At Tesla, its authoritarian management aggressively pursues the interests of capital. It exacerbates exploitation and consolidates its uber-authoritarian and highly manipulative management style.

It became clear that Tesla’s despotic management was using means – in this fight – that were most likely no longer within the legal framework set out by German labour law. The election of the works council is a matter for workers and only for workers. Management has no role to play in this. In fact, management is legally required “to stay away”.

This is the only way to ensure a free and fair election. However, Tesla’s management – backed by the AfD-loving Elon Musk – has massively interfered with the election.

Yet IGM was able to achieve a rather strong share of votes on the works council despite the unequal conditions and the illegal and dirty election campaign of Tesla’s management. Meanwhile, IGM is right in warning that other employers are taking Tesla as a role model and, in turn, are increasingly influencing works council elections in order to establish bodies that are more suitable for them.

Meanwhile, in the next four years IGM will continue to operate in the company only from a minority position. “Hitler-salute-giving” Musk and his managerial entourage have been uniting the majority of the workforce behind them since the very beginning. They will continue to set the tone at Tesla’s Gigafactory – unconditionally – for the next four years. A bitter loss for workers.

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