Tesla Sues Local Authority To Reopen Factory As Musk Threatens Move To "Texas/Nevada"
Tesla’s plans to reopen its Fremont factory have been scuppered, resulting in a legal battle. Based on new guidance issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom last Thursday which allowed manufacturers to restart operations, the electric car maker intended to get its facility running again on Friday. However, Newsom’s guidance allows counties to adopt stricter rules as they see fit, something Tesla’s local authority has chosen to do.
Alameda County’s shelter-in-place order has been extended until the end of May, and despite some tweaks to the restrictions, manufacturing is still a no-go.
Tesla has responded by filing a lawsuit with the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking an injunction against Alameda’s shelter-in-place order. It claims the county’s ruling “contradicts the Governor’s Order to the extent it restricts the operation of business operating in the federal critical infrastructure sectors”.
Alameda County told The Verge on Saturday that it was “communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team on the ground in Fremont…This has been a collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla’s factory.”
In a blog post, Tesla said:
“We will continue to put people back to work in a safe and responsible manner. However, the County’s position left us no choice but to take legal action to ensure that Tesla and its employees can get back to work. We filed a lawsuit on May 9 asking the court to invalidate the County Orders, to the extent the County claims they prevent Tesla from resuming operations.”
The company’s ‘Return to Work Playbook’ notes numerous new safety measures including the issuing of PPE (personal protective equipment) where necessary, increased cleaning of work areas and the adjustment of shifts to avoid too many workers being in the same area at one time.
Amidst all this, CEO Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to claim Tesla will “immediately” move its headquarters and any “future programs” to Texas or Nevada. “If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen [sic] on how Tesla is treated in the future,” he added.
Musk has used his 33.9 million-followed Twitter account to downplay the risks of Coronavirus on numerous occasions and has been increasingly critical of shelter-in-place orders. He also Tweeted “Tesla stock price is too high imo” on 1 May, leading to a 10 per cent drop in the company’s share price.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
These past few weeks have shown how Musk truly sees the world. He uses his Twitter to appear as a witty and relatable cool guy, but treats his workers like garbage. He terminated many of the contracts and cut the pay of the other workers, while he collects a $700m bonus himself. Now he openly admits he’s willing to risk their health for profit.
No one should be shocked by this. I’m honestly surprised no one railed against him en mass when he called the man that rescued the Thai footballers a Paedophile because he didn’t want to use his Submarine. Plus, former employees have also said that they’ve been threatened if they tried to unionise.
I’ve called Musk scum for years, but his company makes mediocre cars so people are willing to forget so they can continue to be the good little consumers that Musk wants.
Musk has turned into one of those kids who, because everyone passes him off as an annoying nerd, decides that this makes him smart, so goes around saying stuff that he thinks is eloquent and clever.
get fked Musk
Can’t deny that Musk is incredibly smart as an engineer. But wow is he garbage as a human being
I understand that your workers have to eat but no other company is having a hissy fit. He even caught a case of twitter fingers.
He doesn’t give a shit about his workers, he’s mad that he’s not making money right now
This has nothing to do with him caring for the company’s workers. A health official found the measures put in place were not sufficient to allow work to restart. Musk then threw a twitter tantrum instead of trying to address the shortfalls or following the health officers recommendations.
If he really did care for his workers he would either:
A - Give them part pay despite the fact they are not working or
B - Actually go all in on the health guidelines and requirements so that the workers can carry out their job safely.
An American (hes a US citizen so it counts) Billionaire is sacrificing the lives of the working class cuz hes losing a little money. In other news, water is wet
Amen.