The dispute consuming Giga Berlin for weeks just hit pause. Tesla and German union IG Metall reached a truce Thursday in a labor court in Frankfurt (Oder), agreeing to suspend public statements about an alleged secret recording at a February 10 works council meeting — at least until the plant’s works council election concludes Wednesday, March 4.

The Fact: Tesla and IG Metall agreed in a Frankfurt (Oder) labor court to stop making specific public statements about the February 10 recording incident until after the Giga Berlin works council election ends March 4, according to Reuters.
The Delta: Tesla framed the agreement as proof IG Metall “was not above the law.” IG Metall called it a chance to refocus on actual working conditions before the vote. Same hearing, opposite spin.
The Buyer Impact: The March 4 election result will directly shape labor relations at Tesla’s only European factory — and potentially its investment plans there, with both plant management and Elon Musk personally threatening to halt expansion if IG Metall candidates win.

How the Truce Came Together

The agreement covers a narrow but pointed scope: both sides will hold off on repeating specific public statements about the February 10 incident until the works council election ends. IG Metall local leader Jan Otto said Thursday the pause lets the union refocus on what workers actually care about. “Now, just a few days before the works council election, we can concentrate fully on the issues over working conditions — there’s a lot to do,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.

Tesla’s read of the same outcome was sharply different. In a statement following the hearing, the company said the court result showed IG Metall “was not above the law.” Both statements came out of the same room. Neither side is claiming victory outright, but both are framing the outcome in their favor ahead of March 4.

The dispute traces back to a February 10 works council meeting where Tesla filed a criminal complaint against an IG Metall representative it accused of secretly recording the session. Under German law, recording a non-public works council meeting without consent is a criminal offense. IG Metall called the allegation a “calculated lie” designed to damage the union ahead of the election. That criminal complaint remains active. The truce covers public statements, not the underlying legal case.

The Works Council Election Is the Real Fight

The March 4 election is the reason the recording dispute escalated so fast, and the reason both sides agreed to cool it this week. Giga Berlin’s works council election determines who represents the plant’s roughly 10,700 workers in negotiations with management. The stakes, according to plant director André Thierig and Elon Musk, are the plant’s expansion future.

Thierig drew a public red line in late December, saying he could not imagine Tesla’s U.S. leadership continuing to invest in Giga Berlin’s expansion if IG Metall candidates won. That was followed last week by Musk sending workers a pre-recorded video message making the same threat directly. A plant director warning is one thing. The CEO personally messaging 10,700 workers days before the vote is a different order of pressure.

In the 2024 works council election, IG Metall candidates earned the most individual votes — 3,516 — but non-union representatives held a majority of seats overall. Non-union works council members in the German system are independent worker representatives, not management proxies, but at Giga Berlin they have historically been less confrontational with Tesla than IG Metall candidates. The union has been organizing since 2024 to flip that seat majority. The recording incident, whatever actually happened on February 10, gave each side a short-term narrative weapon. Tesla used it to paint IG Metall as untrustworthy. IG Metall used it to frame Tesla management as manufacturing a pre-election crisis.

The truce removes that weapon from both arsenals through March 4.

Giga Berlin’s Broader Pressures

The labor dispute doesn’t exist in isolation. Internal documents obtained by Handelsblatt showed Giga Berlin’s workforce dropped from 12,415 during the 2024 works council elections to approximately 10,703 — a reduction of 1,712 people, or nearly 14%. Tesla’s response focused on “permanent staff” stability, a distinction that meant little to the workers who left. The plant is also running at roughly half its stated capacity of up to 500,000 units annually, producing around 260,000 vehicles per year.

This context matters for the election. Workers started joining IG Metall in meaningful numbers back in 2023, citing safety concerns, high accident rates, and difficult working conditions. The union’s growth at the plant wasn’t sudden — it built over more than two years. March 4 is the first real test of whether that organizing translated into electoral support.

EVXL’s Take

The truce is a sensible de-escalation, but don’t mistake it for resolution. Both sides agreed to stop saying specific things publicly for a few days. The criminal complaint is still active. The underlying tension — between a union pushing for stronger worker representation and a management team that has publicly tied the plant’s investment future to keeping IG Metall from controlling the council — doesn’t disappear on March 4. It just gets a new chapter.

What I’ll be watching is the margin. A narrow IG Metall win creates legal and organizational friction but gives the union formal standing. A large IG Metall win gives Thierig and Musk the justification they’ve already telegraphed to tell Austin that Giga Berlin’s expansion timeline is now complicated by labor. A non-union majority preserves the current structure, but with a workforce down nearly 14% and a factory running at half capacity, that’s not a stable outcome regardless of who holds the seats.

We’ve covered the European sales collapse, the 1,700 missing workers, and the criminal complaint that started this. The March 4 election result will likely be the most consequential single data point in Giga Berlin’s story this year. If IG Metall wins a seat majority, expect Tesla to reference it at the Q1 earnings call as justification for pausing or scaling back Giga Berlin’s expansion plans. That call is roughly five weeks out.

Editorial Note: AI tools were used to assist with research and archive retrieval for this article. All reporting, analysis, and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.