Former Tesla employees and union activists stage a protest over recent firings in Fremont

Earlier this month, Tesla fired hundreds of employees, which the automaker claimed was due to their annual performance reviews.

Some employees have instead claimed that they were targeted for speaking out about a unionization effort at Tesla. Now they have organized a protest that took place at the delivery center in front of Tesla’s Fremont factory today.

A few dozens people, some claiming to be former Tesla employees, were seen marching down Tesla’s parking lot and blocking the access to the Superchargers.

They later entered the delivery center where they chanted and made speeches. They were heard chanting “Hey Tesla you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side!” and people claiming to be former employees of Tesla reiterated that they were fired for “standing for themselves” and speaking out about a unionization effort.

A Tesla owner waiting in the delivery center captured the event on video:

In the video, we can see several people with union shirts. It’s not clear how many of them are actual former Tesla employees.

Tesla has been denying claims that employees were fired because of any link with the local unionization effort in Fremont.

Following the events from earlier today, we reached out to Tesla and a spokesperson sent us the following comment:

“At Tesla, we strive to be a fair and just company, the only kind worth being. No one at Tesla has ever or will ever have any action taken against them based on their feelings on unionization. Some employees recently left Tesla, but what has not been reported is that a much larger number — 17% of our employees — were promoted, and almost half of those promotions were within our factory in Fremont. We are a company where people can be promoted as quickly as their talents and work allow. It is not unexpected that union supporters would protest any decision we make, including this one, and we respect their right to do so.”

While people were let go all over Tesla’s operations, it appeared that a lot of them were working in Fremont, where Tesla says it employs over 10,000 workers.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has been leading efforts to unionize Tesla’s Fremont factory for the better part of a year now.

The effort doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, which the UAW attributes to Tesla allegedly impeding attempts to promote the unionization effort at their factory. The union filed an official complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).Tesla called the claims “baseless”,