Federal Appeals Court Upholds Tesla’s Ban on Union Shirts

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled in favor of Tesla, stating that the automaker is allowed to ban employees from wearing union shirts on its production line. The ruling overturns a previous decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which had accused Tesla of violating federal labor laws with the ban.

According to a report from Bloomberg Law, the court emphasized that Tesla’s “Team Wear” uniform policy serves a legitimate employer interest, asserting that it neither discriminates against union communication nor disrupts workers’ time away from their duties. The judges contended that the NLRB had applied an “irrational” rule by categorizing any restriction on union apparel as an illegal prohibition, without adequately considering the balance between employers’ rights and workers’ rights.

“We agree with Tesla,” the appeals court stated, affirming that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not empower the NLRB to deem all company uniforms presumptively unlawful. The court granted Tesla’s petition for review, denied the NLRB’s application for enforcement, and vacated the Board’s initial decision.

The court also highlighted Tesla’s claim that approved uniforms facilitate “visual management,” enabling team leads to easily identify and distinguish various employees, something that Tesla argued is particularly in settings such as the general assembly area of the factory.

The court’s decision reiterated Tesla’s argument that the presence of United Auto Workers (UAW) shirts in the general assembly at the Fremont factory led to “mutilations” of produced vehicles, prompting the need for a uniform change in 2017. While the court acknowledged Tesla’s concern about non-uniform clothing causing harm, it also noted that employees could wear approved clothes adorned with smaller union stickers.