Step 1: Go to the internet and find a news article posted within the last month that discusses labor union formation and activity, summarize key points, and post in the Discussions area.

Classmate: On Tuesday, workers at a Tesla factory in Buffalo, New York, launched an organizing campaign under the union Tesla Workers United. According to workers, they are seeking better pay, job security, and a voice in the workplace. The workers are responsible for labeling videos from the company's cars in order to improve Tesla's driver assistance systems marketed as Autopilot or Full Self Driving.

However, just days after launching the union campaign, more than 30 workers from the Autopilot unit at the Buffalo plant were fired by Tesla, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by the union. Workers United claims that the terminations were retaliatory and aimed at discouraging union activity.

In the complaint, the union urged the NLRB to provide injunctive relief to prevent the destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla's "unlawful conduct." The union stated that the policy instituted by Tesla, which prohibits recording workplace meetings without the permission of all participants, violates federal labor law and flouts New York's one-party consent law to record conversations.

This is not the first time that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have clashed with union proponents. In 2017, Tesla fired a union activist named Richard Ortiz, and in 2018, Musk tweeted a comment found to have violated federal labor laws. The NLRB ordered Tesla to reinstate Ortiz and to have Musk delete his tweet, which it said threatened workers' compensation. Tesla has appealed the administrative court's ruling, and the tweet remains.

After the union's complaint, Tesla responded with a company blog post titled "In Response to False Allegations," in which it stated that the recent terminations in the Autopilot team amounted to about 4% of the employees in that group and were part of performance review-related cuts being made at the company starting the week of Feb. 12. Tesla also wrote that it identified which employees it would let go on Feb. 3, which the company said was before the union campaign was announced. According to Tesla, the Autopilot data labeling team in Buffalo has grown over the last six months from 437 employees to around 675 employees as of the start of this week.

Step 2: In your initial response to the topic, you have to answer all questions:

1. Do unions engage in ethical behavior? Explain.
2. Historically, what factors precipitated the formation of unions? Explain.
3. Do you expect union activity to increase or decrease globally? Explain.

Classmate:

1. Unions can engage in ethical behavior, such as promoting fair treatment of workers and negotiating for better wages and working conditions, but like any organization, there can also be instances of unethical behavior like forcing the hand of business owners to give the employees what they want.
2. Historically, factors that precipitated the formation of unions include poor working conditions, low wages, long hours, and lack of benefits or job security.
3. It is difficult to predict whether union activity will increase or decrease globally, as it depends on a variety of factors such as economic conditions, political climate, and cultural attitudes towards unions. However, recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the gig economy have led to increased discussions about workers' rights and the need for collective bargaining, which could potentially lead to increased union activity.

Respond with value-added comments to your classmate.