A California judge has just announced that nearly 6,000 black factory workers can sue billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla as a group. The lawsuit accuses the electric car maker of failing to address widespread racism and harassment at its Fremont factory.
Electric car company Tesla will face a lawsuit from nearly 6,000 black American workers over racial discrimination issues at its Fremont factory. (Photo: REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann)
California Supreme Court Justice Noel Wise said the lawsuit raises questions common to all black American workers at the Fremont plant about whether Tesla knew about the alleged misconduct and whether it refused to take steps to stop it.
Former assembly line worker Marcus Vaughn also sued the company in 2017, but the case has not yet been settled. The worker said that black American workers were subjected to a range of racist behavior including slurs, graffiti and nooses at their workplaces.
Vaughn’s attorney, Lawrence Organ, said he was interested in the information and was looking forward to developing a plan to bring the case to trial. “I think the numerous complaints over time show how Tesla has failed to prevent racial harassment of its black American employees,” Organ said in an email.
Experts say the decision is a blow to Tesla, as it will leave the company facing millions of dollars in compensation for black American workers at the affected Fremont factory.
Judge Noel Wise said she plans to hold a trial in October, when she will also preside over a trial in another case involving similar complaints filed against Tesla by a California state civil rights agency.
Tesla is also facing racial bias charges in federal court in California, brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Tesla has moved to dismiss that lawsuit or put it on hold, saying it has other lawsuits to resolve first.
Meanwhile, Tesla is also appealing a $3.2 million jury verdict awarded to a Black former elevator operator at the Fremont plant in a separate racial harassment case. Another worker, Owen Diaz, won a $137 million jury verdict after an initial trial in 2021, but the judge ordered a second trial after ruling the award was too high.
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