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Tesla Faces Lawsuit For Racial Harassment In Its Factories (mercurynews.com)
Three former Tesla factory workers have filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming they were subject to constant racial discrimination and harassment in the electric car company's factories. "The men, who are African-American, claim in a new complaint filed Monday in state court that Tesla supervisors and workers used racial epithets and drew racist graffiti on cardboard boxes," reports The Mercury News. From the report: The new suit is the second by black employees charging Tesla failed to address racial antagonism at its factory. The electric vehicle maker also has a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board over claims it illegally tried to silence workers promoting a union. The complaints come as the Tesla heads into a crucial ramp-up of Model 3 production, its lower-cost electric vehicle. A Tesla spokesman denied the suit's allegations and said the men never raised the complaints to the company during their brief time at the plant. "Given our size, we recognize that unfortunately at times there will be cases of harassment or discrimination in corners of the company," the spokesman said. "From what we know so far, this does not seem to be such a case." The suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, claims Owen Diaz and his son, Demetric, were called the N-word while they worked at the Fremont factory, and supervisors did little to stop it. A third man, Lamar Patterson, also claims he was subjected to insensitive racist remarks.
If the motion picture industry hadn't hired Harvey Weinstein, there would be a lot less traumatized starlets. White men cause trouble.
In present times, being subjected to racial epithets is totally unacceptable. The fact that Tesla did little or nothing to address or curb this behavior is astounding so they will have to pay the piper for what they failed to do. Tesla assumes the ultimate responsibility for making its employees conform with a code of conduct that prevents discrimination in the workplace and did not do so. It is a shame that we live in times where people on the far right and hate groups are becoming emboldened because of the poor example our country's leadership is setting. I hate bringing politics into this, but leadership that encourages hatred emboldens subordinate people who might already feel they have an axe to grind against minorities.
that is the new equality cry but business is business
Musk is South African and white South Africans love their racism.
And when are the political narratives constantly being pushed now on this site going to end? I thought this was a tech site.
Elon Musk is a hypocrite. He claims to support the good of the workers, advocating for ideas like universal basic income. However, Tesla is suppressing the formation of unions that would represent the workers and ensure their rights are respected. And now Tesla is alleged to have allowed racial harassment to have occurred in its factories. Musk doesn't truly care about the good of workers. He's grandstanding because doing so presents a favorable image of himself that helps boost sales. He doesn't actually want to take any action to protect his own workers by allowing them to unionize or even eliminating ethnic slurs in his factories. Musk should be exposed for the hypocrite that he is.
You fucking niiggers
Hush that fuss and go on back to ya momma's house with those tears.
She might tell you something about sticks and stones.
Watch that the people uttering the words were also black.
Tesla's working on ramping up production on a lower cost vehicle (that could compete with the big names) and suddenly they are facing troubles in SJW trigger catch-phrase areas? Hmm. Suspicious.
Not that I'm saying there can't be a racism issue within a company that size. If there is it should be addressed. But color me skeptical that an issue of that type in THIS day and age wouldn't be brought up internally and IMMEDIATELY tackled with great fervor due to the political climate and the WELL DESERVED reputation companies that don't deal with these issues develop. The timing of the lawsuit is also suspect.
If I was an educated black person working at a high visibility company then I might recognize the gold mine opportunity too!
OK, maybe that is racist, but racism and sexism exists and therefore it can be used. If I was an educated black person (especially if female) then I would capitalize on every possible career move, even if a bit immoral, because I'm an in-titled asshole. America has shown it likes public outrage and rich capitalistic assholes!
And Trump called too, saying we got what we signed up for.
Can we please grow up and stop using the term "the N-word"??
Words only have the power you give them. When we insist that a word is so bad we can't even print it, we give it power. Can we just knock off the childish euphemisms?
Some people are jerks. Not printing what they actually say does not solve any problem, but it does make us look afraid, and it encourages the jerks.
1. Complain nobody wants to hire you because "racism"
2. Get a job with some moneybag company on the Jewfaggot Diversity Bandwagon
3. Sue the company for some manufactured, exaggerated claim about "racism"
4. Wonder why nobody wants to hire you
feel the same way at my current work...just cant understand them to prove it...
What are you even talking about?
I tried to read the article. Couldn't get past the site loading ads. So all I know is three people had a complaint but failed to mention it while they were on the job and now they want some legal remedy.
There is no way the CEO or anyone who wasn't at the factory every day would even know about this. Blaming them is just stupid. And contrary to what many seem to believe, a CEO or even a POTUS can't just instantly impose his values on every one in the organization. Managers and employees with inappropriate behavior can only be identified by complaints and only then can action be taken - to give them a chance to improve or just fire them depending on the situation.
And those consequences need time to circulate so that everyone will learn what is expected of them and what happens if they act differently than that. Blaming the company or CEO is only reasonable if they have repeatedly failed to act on complaints or are actually encouraging the illegal behavior.
This makes no sense, Tawana Brawley et al?
You know...if they would just let in the UNIONS, I'm sure ALL these pesky problems and lawsuits would just "magically" disappear.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
>. It is a shame that we live in times where people on the far right and hate groups are becoming emboldened because of the poor example our country's leadership is setting. I hate bringing politics into this, but leadership that encourages hatred emboldens
So it's Obama's fault this happened? (In case you didn't know, he was president in 2015, when this happened.). Good thing we now have new leadership so people who were discriminated against under Obama can now safely bring their plight out in the open, huh?
You might be right. The Dems DO spend a ridiculous amount of time talking about race, making everything racial, trying to keep people constantly separating themselves based on the color of their skin, as if their complexion were the most important thing in the world. Of course when the county's leaders are constantly trying to divide people based on racial groups, you'll have some people buy into their identity politics, their racial stereotyping, and that'll lead to an us-vs-them mentality sometimes.
Musk knows the "Neklacing" well being an Afrikaner first and foremost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing
I don't need n1ggers touching my car that costs more than their house.
Nothing zyklon b can't fix.
It suffice that the lower management is complicit and do not carry the information up (which seem to be the case here). After all discipline is often seen as the lower level management job, herd the cats, while the middle management often see themselves as the planner strategist and not responsible for discipline - from my own experience - and the staff has relatively few bar no contact with middle/high level management. If the lower management stops your complaint.... Then the higher echelon never get a word of it if you follow procedure, or you look like a maverick disturbing their peace if you spring an echelon or two.
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If there has been a formal complaint that got ignored, there'd be a pretty clear case.
From TFA:
Demetric Diaz complained about the regular use of epithets to the staffing agency and another supervisor, the suit said. The supervisor told him he was just a replaceable temporary worker. Diaz was dismissed less than a week later in October 2015.
Owen Diaz continued to work as an elevator operator. But over time, the suit claimed, the harassment grew worse. A co-worker regularly used the N-word. Diaz found an offensive “pickaninny” cartoon with the caption “Boo!” drawn on a bale of cardboard.
Owen Diaz also got into a heated argument with the supervisor who drew the cartoon, the suit said. He complained about the incident, and started to receive poor work evaluations. Diaz left Tesla around May 2016.
I'm not sure what you definition is of a "formal" complaint, but the employees own stories indicate that supervisors were aware of the harassment, and even took part in it. This despite the complaints to other supervisors and the employment agency.
Missing in all of this is Tesla's policy for reporting such behavior in a way that it does not jeopardize the reporter's position in the company. Anyone care to share that?
Even so, it seems implausible that nobody in middle management or upwards knew this was going on.
I remember when this kind of shit happened to my father and I when we worked at a factory in Burbank (when I was working to make ends meet while trying to get into college). The snarks, the racial remarks, the shit thrown to your face from afar, but no one knew who, the offensive pieces of papers left in the assembly lines for us to pick.
In the case of Tesla, if supervisors were aware of it, and if employers actually complained directly to them, multiple times, that's all the "formality" needed.
Though I predict quite a few assholes (here and elsewhere) will twist the conversation into something else, that nothing was formally filed, fake news or whatever.
People are so fucking invested in their Andy Griffit/Mayberry identity that will do anything to cast doubt to any allegations of racial wrong doing. Everything is fined, we moved on a long time ago, and so and so on.
ntr
When without reading the article, how the hell do you get that anyone is blaming the CEO? Maybe I missed it, but regardless if the company is failing to address situations that create discriminatory practices or a hostile work environment they should be sued.
When these things get to the CEO their role is to demonstrate leadership and show the direction the company should follow.
Consider president little fingers for example. When Nazis are protesting on American soil and kill Americans, his job is to set his vision of the direction of the country to the American people. He could denounce the idiotic genocidal ideology we defeated in WW2 or he could support it. Unfortunately there really is no middle road because ignoring it also gives support to it. In our real life example, president little fingers lead the nation to embrace it by claiming those fighting, like our great grandparents did against the supremacist Nazis were just as bad as the Nazis.
Did you sue when you got called names on the playground too? Grow the fuck up. What a joke. That's like suing McDonald's because the coffee is too hot. Weak ass excuse for a human.
Please point out where it says that the alleged offenders were white or male. Or are you just a racist piece of shit?
i got harassed by a little black shit not too long ago, thinking he can do all that simply cos he's black and too young to be responsible i hadnt used your favourite word as an insult in over 30 years, now im all game again good thing it wasnt the muslims huh fuck that shit, where's MY rights, a bit more and i'm gonna move to america and vote for trump next time
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
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I've worked on the line for 7 months with a quarter of the people being black and more than half of the people being commuters from Oakland. Where is this racism? I doubt their story and I'm disgusted by the people in the comment section acting like their opinions on the state of things matter.