Some Tesla Workers Still Concerned at Partially-Reopened Plant (cnn.com) 49
"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.")
But some Tesla workers are still concerned, reports CNN: "I don't feel Elon has those Tesla workers' best interest in his heart. That's my opinion," said Branton Phillips, a material handler for Tesla's production control in the Freemont factory.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment... To keep factory workers safe, Tesla said it will take employees' temperatures, reduce the number of people working particular shifts, distribute protective equipment, regularly clean the factory and enforce social distancing. Phillips said he's concerned the company's safety protocols will be insufficient.
"This is going to be a monumental undertaking," the material handler said. "And I'm sure they're trying their best. It's just not going to be completely possible to completely social distance. That is just going to be a fact." Phillips believes that many other employees share his concerns. However, Phillips plans to return to work Monday when the factory reopens. He said he needs to make a living.
"Just wanted to send you a note of appreciation for working hard to make Tesla successful," Musk said in an email to employees. "It is so cool seeing the factory come back to life and you are making it happen!!" Business Insider quotes him as saying.
"Workers who spoke to Business Insider's Linette Lopez and Mark Matousek ahead of Tesla re-opening the Fremont factory said they feared for their jobs if they didn't report for work." One employee said they were told by the company they wouldn't receive benefits if they didn't come back to work, and would be unable to apply for unemployment. Another said they were told their furlough status would change.
"Many of the workers are older men with pre-existing health conditions," points out an announcement from the county's office of emergency services in its health care services agency, "and many are African American and Latinx... these groups are at higher risk in terms of impact/deaths..."
But some Tesla workers are still concerned, reports CNN: "I don't feel Elon has those Tesla workers' best interest in his heart. That's my opinion," said Branton Phillips, a material handler for Tesla's production control in the Freemont factory.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment... To keep factory workers safe, Tesla said it will take employees' temperatures, reduce the number of people working particular shifts, distribute protective equipment, regularly clean the factory and enforce social distancing. Phillips said he's concerned the company's safety protocols will be insufficient.
"This is going to be a monumental undertaking," the material handler said. "And I'm sure they're trying their best. It's just not going to be completely possible to completely social distance. That is just going to be a fact." Phillips believes that many other employees share his concerns. However, Phillips plans to return to work Monday when the factory reopens. He said he needs to make a living.
"Just wanted to send you a note of appreciation for working hard to make Tesla successful," Musk said in an email to employees. "It is so cool seeing the factory come back to life and you are making it happen!!" Business Insider quotes him as saying.
"Workers who spoke to Business Insider's Linette Lopez and Mark Matousek ahead of Tesla re-opening the Fremont factory said they feared for their jobs if they didn't report for work." One employee said they were told by the company they wouldn't receive benefits if they didn't come back to work, and would be unable to apply for unemployment. Another said they were told their furlough status would change.
"Many of the workers are older men with pre-existing health conditions," points out an announcement from the county's office of emergency services in its health care services agency, "and many are African American and Latinx... these groups are at higher risk in terms of impact/deaths..."
Alternative? (Score:1, Insightful)
To keep factory workers safe, Tesla said it will take employees' temperatures, reduce the number of people working particular shifts, distribute protective equipment, regularly clean the factory and enforce social distancing.
That seems pretty comprehensive. What's the alternative? Stay home until we have a "cure"? That's a stand-in for never reopening, and if you fear the potential of the virus enough to keep everything closed down indefinitely, you have no concept the kind of damage a depression can do.
Good news on that second front, if that's your problem; you'll soon get ringside seats to that show. A year from now, maybe two, you're going agree with the rest of us that shutting down was the single biggest mistake in hum
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Shhh, don't rock the narrative.
Re:Alternative? (Score:4, Informative)
It's not "the workers". It's whoever Linette Lopez and Mark Matousek could dig up. They're two of the most consistent anti-Tesla voices in the media. Even Linette's sources for anti-Tesla articles (for example, Marty Tripp) have described her as having a personal vendetta. And as for Mark, I once watched him send out a hundred of what were basically "form tweets" to everyone he could find by searching Twitter who had any sort of problem with a Tesla, in order to get quotes for an article he was writing to paint Teslas as problematic (most people either didn't reply or basically told him to f* off, but he did get the handful he was looking for)
Of Tesla's ~10k workers at Fremont, you can rest assured, Linette and Mark will only ever quote those with a bone to grind (unless they need to add in a token opposition for "balance"). (There's a couple other names to add to the list as well... Dana Hull, Charlie Grant, and esp. Lora Kolodny come to mind). Tesla's Glassdoor ranking of 3,4 is middle of the road among automakers' US/North American branches (ranging from 3,1 (VW) to 3,9 (Ford)), but you can always count on them to portray it as being negative one million.
It's so bizarre, this funhouse mirror, where articles about Tesla reopening the final auto plant in the US talk about it as "Musk killing workers" (without reading their disease control guidelines [tesla.com]), while the few articles I've run into about other auto plants opening it up talk about it being a ray of hope that these poor furloughed employees can finally get a salary again. Except it's those companies [freep.com] that have had employees die from COVID, not Tesla. Tesla, a company that's had no COVID problems operating in China (having reopened just a week after the Lunar New Year). Tesla, whose San Joaquin operations just across the border weren't shut down and had no COVID problems. Sister company SpaceX, which was declared essential and not shut down, and which had no COVID problems. Tesla's Fremont factory, which the feds, governor, and city all made statements that they wanted it open, and which is 5,3m square feet / ~500k square meters in size for ~10k employees in 3 shifts.
But only that factory, the last one, is the only one that gets damning coverage for reopening. Others? They're praised for enabling their furloughed workers get back to work.
** Tesla had two workers at Fremont diagnosed with COVID-19 before it shut down. But because Tesla was one of the early companies in the Bay Area to implement work-from-home for workers who could, said workers had been working at home for weeks).
Reboot246 is a fucking liar and moron (Score:2)
More likely to die in a car accident? Do you make this shit up or do you just listen to Alex Jones? You're a fucking ignorant pile of shit? Damn, there I go insulting shit again.
Car deaths in the US are on the order of 100 a day. COVID deaths are on the order of 1500 a day. You're off by a factor of 15, you pustule. You're spreading deadly lies.
Re: Reboot246 is a fucking liar and moron (Score:2)
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I think you're mixing up an order of magnitude, which is a factor of 10, for a factor of one. Not a big deal. You're not the fucking moron. Neither am I. Reboot246 is.
Re: Alternative? (Score:1, Troll)
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Nah, the alleged president is shooting his re-election chances in the feet all by himself.
Re:Alternative? (Score:4, Informative)
Tesla has been running it's China Gigafactory at full speed for the past few months with comprehensive virus safety testing and protective procedures. I think they have proven that they know how to do this.
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You cannot really compare what the people in China will do to what people in the U.S. will do though.
Just compare the differences in behavior. The people in China are willing to wear masks and they obeyed govt stay-at-home and self-quarantine orders for months.
Now look at people in the U.S. Half the people don't/won't wear masks (from my observations) and probably just as many ignore stay-at-home orders because being told to do so is fascist and against their constitutional rights.
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While I do understand that China has many advantages over the US, I think we need to consider that Tesla controls the workplace and can mandate testing, fever detection, separation, cleaning and facemasks as it has done in China as a condition of coming to work. (This is something that Amazon employees have been demanding for months but Amazon just doesn't care.)
Of course his priority is not the workers (Score:2, Insightful)
Welcome to capitalism. Hold your applause until the end.
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Welcome to capitalism. Hold your applause until the end.
They could complain to the Union...
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It seems his priority IS his workers; I've heard him talk about wanting to be able to continue to pay his workers.
Sure, he may have selfish interests too, but that doesn't negate what appears to be genuine concern for his employees.
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That's not the discussion.
The article was about the measures Tesla is taking, and how some employees don't feel comfortable. Well, guess what? No measures taken would help them feel comfortable short of a full shutdown ( possibly until there is a "cure" ).
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Is Tesla so short of cash that he couldn't keep paying workers for another week or two while shut down?.
Branton needs a job (Score:2)
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No, Musk cares only about Mars (Score:2)
Musk is not your normal run-of-the-mill sociopath. He cares about one thing, and one thing only: Going to live the rest of his life on Mars.
Every business he started, everything he developped and researched points to this goal.
Tesla and SolarCity: Developping the technology for energy production and transportation for a Mars colony.
SpaceX: If it isn't obvious already: Going to Mars.
The Boring Company: Developping the technology to dig and create underground habitats on Mars for protection from radiations.
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I wonder if he has a vision of himself as a real Tony Stark: The business and technology genius who has a duty to use his fortune to save the world. His goal is noble, so nothing must be allowed to stand in his way.
Don't be too quick to judge. (Score:4, Insightful)
Little people are expendable
Isn't this exactly how we are treating "essential" workers (who are paid the least in our society)?
(unless in possession of a valuable skill, which must be quickly commoditized for safety).
I'm not so sure about this fact considering he was actually on the factory floor when he could have easily been at home and had someone else do it.
Watch carefully as these workers will, most likely, get sick in increasing numbers - while Tesla will be trying to sweep it under the rug.
That is a distinct possibility. Another possibility is that he's taken sufficient safety measures and became frustrated with an overwealmed bureaucracy.
All things considered, it's not good behavior but it would be atypical behavior for an actual sociopath.
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Being able to hire the right people and then get out of their way and let them do their best work is a skill in and of itself, and it works in other areas too. Madonna, for example, is not a great musician (although she may actually be a great songwriter), but she knew how to hire a great band and let them make her look better than she is, and was hugely successful at it.
No, that's rich (Score:1)
Madonna isn't a musician, she's an entertainer. Musk isn't an engineer, he's a grifter.
Re:X Æ A-12 (Score:5, Informative)
He was employee #4, the first chairman of the board, and contributed nearly all of the first round of VC funding. The first five employees consider each other founders, and that's not entirely unreasonable.
And it's the other way around. The lawsuit was because Musk was allegedly trying to diminish the role of one of the original founders, and the settlement ended the alleged disparagement, while granting employees #3, 4, and 5 (including Musk) the right to be called founders in addition to the first two.
Full disclosure? (Score:4, Informative)
"I don't feel Elon has those Tesla workers' best interest in his heart. That's my opinion," said Branton Phillips, a material handler for Tesla's production control in the Freemont factory.
I'd be very curious if the employees who are most vocal about this are also the same ones agitating for Tesla to be unionized. Funny how nobody in the press asks this rather pertinent question.
Oh wait...a quick Google search reveals Mr. Phillips is not just a Tesla employee...he's an organizer [equaltimes.org] and union activist! That couldn't possibly taint his "opinion" in this matter, could it? Nah, that's just crazy talk.
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Do you think people decide to try to unionize for the sheer hell of it?
Do you think people never decide to unionize because the rampant success of a startup automaker that's not unionized could threaten the UAW in cataclysmic way? The UAW has a complete stranglehold on the Big Three automakers, chanting the mantra that unionization is their key to "succeeding", that automaking is "impossible" without the UAW. I can't imagine a bigger threat to that narrative than Tesla, a disruptive company that's so popular people are lined up to apply for jobs there.
Unions have a long hist
Musk and Media (Score:3)
contrary to media reports
Wow like how is that possible.
Sounds like ... (Score:2)
*Much more. Those shops are accessible to the public. The Tesla plant is only accessible to a restricted set of people.
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How do you define adequate? If 100 people get COVID out of 10,000, and one dies, is that adequate safety? What about 10 cases but still one death?
The goal is to reduce risk; you cannot completely eliminate it.
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How do you define adequate?
That's up to the state. Either way, both cases you cited have the same outcome: one death. If that is the key decision making statistic, then Tesla should be able to track it easily. Because they know who works with who and can track contacts. With pot shops, it's no so easy. Because the customers disappear into the general public. And a requirement to record all contacts is likely going to get a lot of pushback (pot still being illegal at a federal level and one's name on a list could forfeit future federa
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Latinx? (Score:1)
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Maybe it's a Latina that used to be a Latino, or vice versa.
Some Tesla factory workers complained! (Score:2)
Is there any workplace in which every single employee feels it's entirely safe to work in at this point?
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Is there any workplace in which every single employee feels it's entirely safe to work in at this point?
My home office is completely safe for me to work in. Unfortunately, my boss's boss (possibly his boss, but we don't know since he's not sharing information) is a moron who wants everyone back into our multi-person confined space Monday morning.
Death rates (Score:1)
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/... [cdc.gov]
COVID is nearing 90,000 deaths in 3 months, and generally expected to have hit 140,000+ after 6. In three months, we're already at 1.5 years worth of flu and pneumonia, a year's worth of diabetes, or 6 months worth of all accidental deaths combined. At the current rate, COVID will shoot up to the #3 cau