GM, for instance, has a shutdown almost every summer. It's usually around two weeks. It can be more, and a few workers stick around for the machines they can't really turn off. They also get to do some maintenance as well as let workers take time off in the summer, without affecting regular production.

Sometimes (when sales are slow and inventories are full) the shutdown lasts longer than two weeks.

To give a bit more context, hourly employees are laid off and draw unemployment during these planned shutdowns. It sounds super weird, but it's been happening for over 50 years, so everyone knows what they are getting into. The same hourly employees are hired back again at the end of the shutdown.

I'm not exactly sure what happens for downtime more than a couple shifts, but I'm sure the union remembers it in the next negotiations.

Lots of people who work construction draw all winter.

Where? Here in the D.C. area, construction does not stop because of weather. The exception would be extreme weather such as hurricanes, lightning and rain if the building was not closed in. It actually seems that construction increases in the winter, I guess because of fresh budgets. There is a joke that they only start breaking ground when it is the coldest time of the year.

This happens in DC too, although perhaps to a lesser extent due to your mild climate. Some construction continues through the winter, and most carpenters and laborers are happy to work instead of draw, but nobody is framing in the snow. It's true that excavation is easier when the ground isn't muddy, so "breaking ground" in the winter could make sense. You can't pour concrete when it's freezing, though, so if the timing is wrong the rain could mess up the excavation before you get a chance to place your forms.

It's pretty typical for auto companies to shut down for ~2 weeks over the summer and in December. Ford does the same thing. It gives the companies two big windows for planned maintenance on their machinery which helps the plants run more consistently the rest of the year.

Volvo's summer factory shutdown in Sweden is even longer.

Here's the UAW-FCA contract.[1] This would be a "temporary layoff" in a union plant. Beyond 10 days, different rules apply. Auto plants do this during model changeovers, so it's expected. Short layoffs are unpaid. Long layoffs come under the unemployment benefits provision.

Tesla's production engineering people probably need to rearrange the production line. By now, they should know where the trouble spots are.

[1] https://uaw.org/app/uploads/2017/03/2015-agreement-productio...

I've never heard of a company paying non-salary employees during a plant shutdown. (In the US, things may be different in Europe for all I know)

Am I wrong in assuming that factory workers are salaried?

I'm a industrial engineer and have worked at 4 factories and am familiar with far more. I don't know of a single company where production employees are paid salary.

I talked with a production employee about it when starting my current job. They said "man I could never work a salaried job. I'd get so frustrated with it".

There are pros and cons to the typical US salary structure.

* If the company gets too aggressive in the expectation of hours worked, people just leave since they're not getting overtime pay.

* I also have flexibility to start/end my day when I want within reason

* I never have to take time off for doctors visits

* I don't have a micro manager for a boss, so if I work 35 hours one week and 45 the next, nobody cares.

In the US, hourly employees get at least 1.5x pay for working beyond 40 hours. It's often cheaper to pay for overtime than expand the workforce, so some companies hand out OT like candy at a parade. An employee can double their pay by working 66 hours compared to just 40.

There are often also shift differentials. They might be a couple extra dollars/hour for nights and a couple extra for weekends.

Most salaried employees are "salary exempt" and are typically not paid overtime.

I believe there's no way in California for the kind of worker on Tesla's factory floor to be considered exempt, so he would almost certainly be getting overtime even if salaried. You could easily meet the 2x minimum wage annualized pay exemption, but the "administrative/executive" exemption would be an absurd stretch. A few people might meet professional exemption but probably not most of the workers, and the ones that do are likely already salaried. (I'm not a lawyer, particularly not an employment lawyer in California, though.)

Regarding:

* I also have flexibility to start/end my day when I want within reason

* I never have to take time off for doctors visits

* I don't have a micro manager for a boss, so if I work 35 hours one week and 45 the next, nobody cares.

I don't see how any of that is relevant to whether one has salary or not?

> I don't see how any of that is relevant to whether one has salary or not?

I suppose it's not specific to salary, more to the type of work. In the US with production workers, a salary would be quite unusual. I have friends working at many companies and have never heard of the production employees being salaried.

> * I also have flexibility to start/end my day when I want within reason

Generally production employees work specific shifts with specified start and end times. Showing up 15 minutes late yields a verbal warning, 1 point on a discipline tree, etc. This can happen with salary positions as well, but I can't say I've ever seen it. It's more a "get your work done" attitude than anything.

> * I never have to take time off for doctors visits

I should have said "If I get sick, my paycheck isn't any smaller because I had to go to the doctor or take 3 days off."

Yeah, exactly. All of this applies to me as well, in a salaried devops job.

Even some US tech companies have shutdowns between Christmas and New Year's and force everyone, including salaried employees, to take vacation or unpaid leave.

I would assume most union shops have protection against just "shutting down" suddenly and not paying employees.

Not really, other than future negotiations.