Sexual harassment, racism and dangerous conditions are said to be rampant at Tesla’s Austin factory
Tesla factories and other facilities are facing unpleasant problems – whether it is sexual harassment, racism or Unsafe conditions – for a long time, and it seems like the toxic work environment has reached a point Its Gigafactory is in Autin, Texas. Some staff at the factory – which opens in 2021 – spoke to Nation about what they went through Elon Musk’s flagship Tesla factory.
One of the main problems faced by female aircraft workers is being sexually harassed by a male superiorsomething that is not uncommon at Tesla factories. Joan Rodgers started working at the factory two years ago and she details some of the disgusting behavior she witnessed at the Gigafactory as well as the failure of those in charge to do anything to rectify the situation there. Nation:
At first, she liked this job. But last March, her station in an area of the factory known as the general store, where workers receive deliveries, got a new male supervisor. Before long, Rogers noticed that whenever he was near her – whether walking towards her or standing next to her – he was touching and adjusting his penis within her sight. It happens every day.
Rogers was never sexually harassed by a co-worker or supervisor, even when she worked in prison. So she asked her leader—an employee who supervised her team—to say something to make the supervisor stop. As far as she could tell, the leader did not address the issue with the supervisor. Instead, she started being threatened to write articles about things that weren’t her fault. So she escalated the situation, first to command and then to human resources. But human resources “sent me right back to the people who were causing me problems,” she said. “They guide you back to your abuser. They won’t fix anything.” The people in charge of her group pulled her aside to tell her that she would only get hurt if she talked to anyone other than them about what was happening.
She said two other women also complained about similar behavior but still did nothing. Then the man who sexually harassed her began writing to her about “everything I did,” she said. “He just makes life miserable.” Tesla’s policy, she and other workers told The Nation, is that someone whose name is on their resume cannot be promoted or receive raises or bonuses, which has prevented her from moving elsewhere. else in the factory. “He wrote me a letter so I couldn’t leave the department,” she said. “It was a nightmare.”
This kind of behavior isn’t really surprising. It seems like a lot of the people working at Tesla are inspired by behavior Its CEO, Elon Musk – a man with a long history of being strange and intimidating to women. Hell, last week he “joked” about being pregnant with Taylor Swift.
Attitudes toward disobeying the law and allegedly engaging in harassment appear to have permeated his factory floor. The Nation reported in April that, according to a review of more than 50 legal documents, government records at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as well as interviews with workers and Tesla factories in Fremont, California, and Sparks, Nevada, are hotbeds of sexual harassment, racism, and unsafe working conditions, their lawyers say.
Another Tesla employee, Brian Simpson, spoke with Nation about the harassment and discrimination he witnessed in Austin Gigafactory since joining in October 2023. He also worked at Chrysler and Toyota – never faced these types of problems.
But soon he heard about horrific sexual harassment. A newly hired woman asked a male co-worker where the bathroom was, and after he showed her, he told her, “Now I’m going to rape you.” She screamed and ran away. She complained to human resources, but Simpson said the woman, who became his friend, was told to continue working with the man who threatened her. Simpson, who always said he knew “what was right and what was wrong,” felt compelled to complain about himself, even if it meant risking his job. But nothing happened.
Then he witnessed the harassment firsthand: A manager started talking about his genitals with a female co-worker. So he and his colleague went together to complain to the human resources department. Two days later, Simpson said, she was fired. For his part, he received a citation for having “an inappropriate conversation,” according to a transcript shared with The Nation. “It was revenge,” he said. He has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which he also shared with The Nation.
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Simpson was so worried about being denied complaints that he had trouble sleeping. No longer able to endure this environment, Simpson told the company he would take a 30-day leave starting in mid-August. In September, he extended his leave by one month. “There’s a circus up there,” he said.
It’s not just sexual harassment. Tesla employees nationwide complained about racial discrimination at the company’s facilities. That’s what we mentioned beforebut now we’re taking a closer look at what happened in Austin.
Rogers and Simpson both described witnessing discrimination against black workers in the Austin factory. Simpson heard white and Hispanic co-workers frequently use the N-word around the plant. He worked in quality control, inspecting the work of production associates after they installed parts on cars. But one of those associate producers, he said, would “bully” Black workers by trying to intimidate them into not writing up any errors they found in his work. He didn’t do that to any white or Hispanic people. He said when he complained, his superiors did nothing and no one investigated.
“You don’t see a lot of Black people working as supervisors, leaders, area managers,” said Rogers, herself a Black woman.
Adding to the woes is working at Austin Gigafactory is physically unsafe for workers. What a disaster.
She said shortly after Rogers started working at Tesla in 2022, she had to go to an area of the factory that was still under construction to pick up a part. As she was about to grab the box with the parts inside, something else fell into it, and as it fell, it pulled hard on her arm, tearing her rotator cuff. “I have been working on this role like this ever since,” she said. But the company is fighting against covering the cost of repairing it, she said, and wants to cover only part of the cost of the surgery she needs to fully regain use of it.
“A lot of people were injured in that factory,” Rogers said; she knows other people have been hit by forklifts. It is “very dangerous”. OSHA has inspected the plant four times since it officially opened in 2022, though none of the inspections included details about complaints or what the agency found; two inspections were open, while two were closed seemingly without penalty. Victor Gomez was working as an electrician at the plant in August when he was electrocuted to death by an electrical panel. His family, including his widow and three children, sued the company and the contractors he hired, accusing them of gross negligence and seeking $1 million in damages.
“It’s not a safe environment,” Simpson said. “You really have to be careful.”
This place is truly a nightmare – even by Tesla standards, and that’s really saying something considering how terrible Tesla’s facilities are.
