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Elon Musk Restarts Tesla Factory In Defiance of County Orders (techcrunch.com) 315

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Monday that the company's factory in Fremont, California is open and has restarted production despite a stay-at-home order issued by Alameda County. TechCrunch reports: Musk said in tweet Monday afternoon that he will "be on the line," a reference to the assembly line at the factory where Tesla makes the Model X, Model S, Model 3 and Model Y. He added "if anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me." Musk's reopening follows days of public venting on Twitter as well as a lawsuit all aimed at pressuring Alameda County officials to allow the company to reopen its factory. Tesla filed a lawsuit Saturday against Alameda County seeking injunctive relief, an effort to invalidate orders that have prevented the automaker from reopening.

Tesla had planned to bring back about 30% of its factory workers Friday as part of its reopening plan, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued new guidance that would allow manufacturers to resume operations. However, the governor's guidance included a warning that local governments could keep more restrictive rules in place. Alameda County, along with several other Bay Area counties and cities, last week extended the stay-at-home orders through the end of May. The orders were revised and did ease some of the restrictions. However, it did not lift the order for manufacturing.


UPDATE (5/16/2020): "We have met with Tesla representatives and have confirmed that Tesla is not engaged in full operations, contrary to media reports" this week, read an announcement Wednesday from Alameda County's office of emergency services in its health care services agency.

"Tesla has confirmed that its operations require a substantial lead time to become fully operational, and their current operations are only slightly above Minimum Business Operations."
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Elon Musk Restarts Tesla Factory In Defiance of County Orders

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  • injury attorney will make an quick case out of this for any worker that get's sick on the job!

    • Which is very likely why this is all happening. Since the government is basically in absentia, we're going to work out liability on a case by case, state by state basis like colonial hicks, rather than do something intelligent.

    • Considering the workers need to follow a long and detailed HSE policy specific to this return to work to ensure their own safety, injury lawyers will likely very have a field day doing nothing more than lining their pockets from frivolous lawsuits that leave workers broke.

    • What case, the stats show they will all be fine.

  • Explanation (Score:2, Flamebait)

    Either haters were right and Tesla cannot survive a quarter because of a tight financial situation, or Elon Musk has definitely gone nuts.

    Or both.

    • Re:Explanation (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nevermindme ( 912672 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @04:36PM (#60049584)
      The only way to protest an government order without a law is get taken to court over it. Getting arrested or a citation and going to court is the civil thing to do. Next time Musk will fire up the flamethrower and fill the moat.
      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        Next time Musk will fire up the flamethrower and fill the moat.

        Fill the moat .. with bears! (Which once actually happened, humorously enough.)

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by bobbied ( 2522392 )

        The only way to protest an government order without a law is get taken to court over it. Getting arrested or a citation and going to court is the civil thing to do. Next time Musk will fire up the flamethrower and fill the moat.

        Such is the case to the owner of "Salon A la Mode" in Dallas. She got arrested, fined and tossed in Jail for defying "stay at home" orders and keeping her business open to cut hair. Which, by the way, she did about as safely as I could imagine, requiring gloves, masks, social distancing and the minimum number of people in the salon as possible (you waited in your car until they where ready to take you).

        She's likely going to haul the city of Dallas into court and win a huge civil rights settlement for he

    • Either haters were right and Tesla cannot survive a quarter because of a tight financial situation, or Elon Musk has definitely gone nuts.

      Or both.

      There's a difference between not surviving a quarter and that quarter setting you back many years. The world's largest companies are in fucking crisis mode thanks to the past quarter. I guess they also can't survive a quarter since they are shedding workers and doing everything possible to get operation going again right?

  • Lawsuits ahoy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @04:53PM (#60049628)
    Encouraging workers to break the law and the inevitability that workers will die is not smart. He is going to have his ass sued by shareholders, insurers and employees.
    • Re:Lawsuits ahoy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @05:13PM (#60049698)

      Encouraging workers to break the law and the inevitability that workers will die is not smart. He is going to have his ass sued by shareholders, insurers and employees.

      There's a lot to unpick in that statement, but let me take a crack:

      a) Workers aren't breaking the law by returning to work. If anything employers are.
      b) It isn't inevitable that anyone will die. It's not even inevitable that anyone will contract coronavirus. You'd know that if you read the 36 page playbook [tesla.com]that Telsa prepared to ensure worker safety as they return.
      c) Shareholders won't sue him for attempting to increase their bottom line. That makes no sense
      d) Insurers won't sue him they won't care. If anything the legal battle will be for people who made claims which were denied, and see (b) as to why this isn't a given.
      e) Employees won't sue him, they are being given a chance to voluntarily make money.

      The only thing that makes sense in your entire statement is the spelling and grammar.

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        The only thing that makes sense in your entire statement is the spelling and grammar.

        Nah, his post made perfect sense the first time. You almost even got it:

        Workers aren't breaking the law by returning to work. If anything employers are.

        Yup, that's the point. Now the state and the employees who get sick can sue him over it, costing both Musk and the shareholders money just to sate his ego.

      • by DrXym ( 126579 )
        10,000 employees. Yes it is inevitable some will die. Shareholders will also sue him for any loss these deaths cause in the value of their stock. Insurers and families of employees WILL sue him if his actions caused deaths. And since Musk encouraged these actions chances are it will be him they sue personally and punitive damages could be epic. There isn't anything to unpick. This is obvious and inevitable.
        • Yes it is inevitable some will die.

          Saying something does not make it so. Give the time difference between my post and your reply you're either the world's fastest reader or you didn't bother to even click on the link I gave you as the reason for my statement.

          So go educate yourself a bit before madly posting opinion based on absolutely nothing tangible.

          Shareholders will also sue him for any loss these deaths cause in the value of their stock.

          Why would the stock go down? There's no basis in history for stock going down when a few workers die. It happens all the time. Stocks remain unmoved by such industrial incidents.

          Insurers and families of employees WILL sue him if his actions caused deaths.

          No insurers won

      • by wagnerer ( 53943 )
        You really think the employee that contracts COVID19, brings it home and infects their family perhaps kill grandma, and spends a week or too in an ICU themselves won't sue? Is sue happy America? ROTFL.
        • Re:Lawsuits ahoy (Score:4, Insightful)

          by DDumitru ( 692803 ) <`moc.ocysae' `ta' `guod'> on Monday May 11, 2020 @06:15PM (#60049924) Homepage

          It is worse than that.

          Any liability limits that the employees contract or law specifies will be out the window. An employee can collect any amount of damages they can prove with no limits. If 50 people in your extended family get sick and three die, you could hits "billions" for single claims. The "failure to follow the law" throws out all limits.

          Tesla's liability insurers will not pay these claims. Insurance for a company does not cover the company if the company is engaged in illegal acts. Even if the court overturns the rules, the opening now is still something the insurers will consider illegal. Tesla will have to pay for this out of cash.

          Telsa's shareholders will sue Musk himself for these losses. If they win, Musk could literally "lose his company".

          So Mr. Musk should really listen to his lawyers.

    • The law? Some unelected, mindless county bureaucrat making law? Maybe in the EU. That's not how it works in the USA.

      Pandemic or not, we are a nation of laws. If it's not in the Constitution or state law then it's not legal. This bureaucrat had no authority to make this law.

  • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @05:31PM (#60049790)
    And I thought Elon was in EVs for the sake of humanity. It turns out he's just in it for a buck.
  • Those small minded people are throwing off his schedule for his emigration to mars. Don't they realize that? How would you feel if you had created this great plan to leave all the pollution and global warming behind. Just to be told that regular peoples lives were more important. The nerve of the rest of us.
  • by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @07:08PM (#60050028)

    About 100 comments and not one actually has anything to do with the conditions at the factory.

    I have looked at their publicly published re-open and operations plan for safety and it is impressive. From the looks of it you should conclude that it would be safer to work at the Tesla plant than it would be to go to the grocery store. The China factory also.

    But no -- the I-hate-Musk-because-he-makes-me-feel-inadequate crowd has to pop off with their stupid fact-free opinions. And they are here in force.

    Go and read what Tesla has done. There are pictures if you can't/won't read maybe you'll get the gist that way.

    PS the Fremont Whole Foods store (there is one) does a pretty damn good job with trying to keep people safe. The Costco also. I didn't mean to demean them.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by vipvop ( 34876 )

      They haven't actually made a complete plan yet, it's an outline for a plan. And people hate Musk because he's a lying huckster, at least the ones that pay attention. Most people just hear that he's a genius and take it at face value, until he starts talking about anything in which you have expertise. Unless you're not particularly knowledgeable about anything, then I guess you could continue to think he's great.

"The vast majority of successful major crimes against property are perpetrated by individuals abusing positions of trust." -- Lawrence Dalzell

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