Tesla, the darling of the high tech world, is building a massive “Gigafactory” for batteries with Panasonic outside Reno, Nevada. On Monday, about 100 construction workers walked off the job, protesting the presence of workers from across the border. Across the Nevada border, that is.
The local builders union is angry that employees from New Mexico and Arizona are working on the project, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Adding insult to injury, the out-of-state workers are also non-union laborers, the paper noted.
While hiring across state lines is rarely as controversial as employing foreign workers—how would New York banks function without commuters from New Jersey and Connecticut?—it matters in Nevada. That’s because the state gave Tesla $1.25 billion in tax incentives to land the factory in 2014. Part of the deal negotiated by Gov. Brian Sandoval—whose name was recently floated as a possible Supreme Court nominee—requires at least 50% of the project’s workers be state residents. (In a uniquely Nevada twist, Tesla’s Gigafactory is being constructed on land developed by Lance Gillman, owner of the Mustang Ranch brothel, a legal enterprise in the state).
Tesla says the dispute is between the union and one of its contractors, and that local employees are above the 50% threshold.
“In reality, more than 50% of the workers used by this contractor and more than 75% of the entire Gigafactory workforce are Nevada residents, demonstrating the project’s strong commitment to Nevada,” the company told Quartz in an emailed statement.
Tesla expects the Gigafactory to reach full production in 2020, making enough batteries to power the 500,000 cars it expects to be producing annually by then. The factory’s name reflects the company’s ambition to make enough batteries in a year to produce 35 gigawatt-hours of electricity. A gigawatt is the equivalent of 1 billion watts.