Ash Regan has written to Elon Musk urging him to build a new Tesla 'gigafactory' in Scotland.
The electric car company, which was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, opened its Berlin plant in 2022, which produces around 500,000 vehicles per year and employs more than 10,000 workers.
Mr Musk said that Brexit uncertainty "made it too risky to put a gigafactory in the UK" when announcing the Germany factory, but has not ruled out creating a British plant in the future.
Now the Alba party's Holyrood leader has written to the billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), to urge him to choose Scotland for a new gigafactory.
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The party says that such facilities are a critical part of the global electric vehicle transition, producing the batteries for electric cars that millions of people will get into over the next decade and that for Scotland, their development would mean billions in investment, resulting in potentially tens of thousands of jobs.
Alba believes Scotland would be the “perfect site” for the next gigafactory thanks to its good transport links, port access and would be the “hub” that could service the rest of the UK and Ireland.
Ms Regan MSP said: “There will be nothing ‘just’ about a transition that sees Scottish industry left behind and the high quality jobs of today gone tomorrow. Already we are seeing the real possibility of the value added skills at Grangemouth going, with the quality jobs carried out abroad with only service jobs left behind.
“The case for a gigafactory in Scotland is strong. We have great access by land, air and sea to the world and are perfectly placed to not only serve the Scottish market but also the rest of the UK and Ireland.
“If Elon Musk took up my offer to explore expansion into Scotland it would be a game changer for our manufacturing base, bring billions to our economy and create thousands of highly skilled and well paid jobs.”
When the Tesla gigafactory in Berlin was completed in October 2021, the IG Metall union reported workers were being offered salaries 20% below the equivalent collective agreements at other automotive factories in Germany.
In 2023 the union, Europe's largest industrial union, alleged that the company had set unreasonable working hours and created a "culture of fear" around speaking out.
Irene Schulz of IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen said: "Workers started at Tesla with great enthusiasm for the project. Over time we are observing that this enthusiasm is withering.
"Tesla is not doing enough to improve working conditions and is leaving too little time for leisure, family and recovery."
A strike at the company's Swedish service centres has been ongoing since October of 2023, and has led to solidarity strikes by other Swedish, Danish and Norwegian unions.
Mr Musk has spoken out in the past against unions, stating that they "try to create negativity in a company", and in 2018 threatened to remove stock options from workers who chose to organise.
Tesla is the only major US car manufacturer not represented by a labour union.
In November another of Mr Musk's companies, SpaceX, filed a lawsuit alongside Amazon, Trader Joe's, and Starbucks arguing that the federal National Labor Relations Board’s structure is unconstitutional.
The agency had previously accused the company of unlawfully firing employees who wrote an open letter critical of Musk and of creating the impression worker activities were being surveyed.
Alba has previously argued that the only way to secure the rights of working people is through independence.
Speaking against Conservative anti-strike legislation Kenny MacAskill, now the acting leader of the party, said: "The right of working people to withdraw their labour is a right hard won over many decades of struggle and it is not one that we can surrender without a fight.
"That is why both Neale (Hanvey) and I have been proud as your MPs to stand on the picket line in solidarity with workers the length and breadth of Scotland taking industrial action to defend their terms and conditions.
“Make no mistake the Tories have declared war on the working class. They are demonising essential front line workers in our health and public services and they will use this bill to further weaken trade unions and drive down the living standards of working people."
