The Washington Post
Tesla faces racial harassment suit
Tesla's production floor is a "hotbed for racist behavior," more than 100 African American employees claimed in a lawsuit in which they said that black workers at the electric carmaker suffer severe and pervasive harassment.
The employees are asking permission from a judge to sue as a group and are seeking unspecified general and punitive monetary damages, as well as an order for Tesla to implement policies to prevent and correct harassment.
"Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era race discrimination," the employees said in the complaint filed Monday in California's Alameda County Superior Court.
Tesla has about 33,000 employees globally. More than 10,000 employees work at its sole auto assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., where the United Auto Workers launched a campaign to convince workers to join the union.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marcus Vaughn, who worked in the Fremont factory from April 23 to Oct. 31. Vaughn alleged that employees and supervisors regularly used the "N word" around him and other black colleagues. Vaughn said he complained in writing to human resources and Musk but that he was fired last month for "not having a positive attitude."
Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.