(Bloomberg) -- Employees at Tesla Inc.’s solar-panel factory in Buffalo, New York are kicking off an organizing campaign, a fresh challenge to the automaker that has so far successfully resisted efforts by the United Auto Workers to organize its sole car plant in Fremont, California.

The campaign to organize about 300 production and maintenance employees at the western New York facility is a partnership between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Steelworkers, who began hearing from employees earlier this year, according to local USW organizing coordinator Dave Wasiura. “They want a fair wage that’s reflective of the state investment that the company received,” he said in an interview. 

Wasiura said the unions have created a committee of pro-union employees in the plant and are working toward securing support from a strong enough majority of the workforce to file for a unionization election with the National Labor Relations Board.

A Tesla spokesperson did not immediately comment on the effort except to say that Tesla pays workers an average of $16.20 an hour and gives them benefits and an equity stake in the company. Tesla also pays performance bonuses, and said that the hourly wages are better than the average production worker makes in the Buffalo region.

To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Eidelson in San Francisco at jeidelson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, David Welch, Melinda Grenier

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