Grünheide: Tesla works council demands Christmas bonus for everyone after trillion-dollar package for Elon Musk
Grünheide. The gap between the global corporation's CEO and his employees couldn't be wider: While US billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla's electric car factories, is set to receive a trillion dollars in compensation, employees at Tesla's only European factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, have yet to receive a Christmas bonus.
Works councils and IG Metall want to change that. They are demanding Christmas bonuses for all Tesla employees. The IG Metall faction on the Tesla works council has called on the company to pay all employees a Christmas bonus of at least €1,500.
IG Metall announced this to the MAZ newspaper on Monday, September 15. "We deserve this," declared the group "IG Metall – Tesla Workers." Starting Monday, union members will therefore be collecting signatures on Christmas postcards throughout the Grünheide plant, according to the statement.
This is intended to show the factory management that the workforce supports this demand. "At all car manufacturers in Germany, an extra Christmas payment is a matter of course – except at Tesla," says IG Metall district manager Jan Otto. "That has to change – we're putting pressure on them."
"IG Metall – Tesla Workers," the IG Metall group in the Tesla works council, says: "2025 hasn't been a bed of roses for us at the Gigafactory so far. Despite all the fun we often have in our teams, many regularly push themselves beyond their limits to keep production running," the union representatives said.
"We delivered what we could. Day after day, week after week. We engineered the success of our Gigafactory. That's why there must be more in it for all of us at the end of the year: We deserve it," say the Tesla workers. They continue: "We earn the profits. So we are also entitled to our fair share."
Jan Otto, IG Metall district manager for Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony, underscored this: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk is supposed to receive a trillion dollars in compensation. And the employees are left empty-handed in their Christmas bonuses. This is unacceptable and cannot continue," says the union representative.
At Tesla, "there's enough money because our colleagues work hard and well. That's why we're now going on the offensive," Otto said. "€1,500 Christmas bonus is the minimum."
US electric car manufacturer Tesla says it sees "very positive signals" for its Grünheide plant despite some challenging market conditions. Although Tesla's sales figures in Germany have recently fallen sharply, the Grünheide plant has nevertheless revised its production plans upward for the third and fourth quarters of 2025.
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