Slashdot Mirror
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.
And when are the political narratives constantly being pushed now on this site going to end? I thought this was a tech site.
being subjected to racial epithets / The fact that Tesla did little or nothing to address or curb this behavior
Are these facts, or is someone looking for a payday? If there has been a formal complaint that got ignored, there'd be a pretty clear case. If the harassment actually happened but no formal complaint was made for whatever reason, then it comes down (or should come down) to what the law says about what exactly Tesla's obligations are in having an appropriate code of conduct and making sure it is being followed. No idea what US law has to say about that to be honest... But the point is that Tesla ought to be judged on facts, not claims or hearsay.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Union organizers making good on threats to hurt the business.
"His name was James Damore."
Claims != proven facts and a simple google search on "uaw fraud unionizing" will show that UAW has been proven to have stooped to lies and out and out fraud in pursuit of forcing unionization.
Lets save the outrage until fault has been proven and avoid becoming the modern equivalent of whites in the south lynching a black man on trumped up claims, shall we?
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Musk is South African and white South Africans love their racism.
Wouldn't it have been easier to be racist by NOT hiring minorities than to have to train them to do a skilled job & also train their supervisors to treat them badly?
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
We'll see. They may lose in court and I hope so if this happened. But, I'd be stunned if the public doesn't choose to just overlook this because so many idolize Musk. I'd be surprised if there is even one person who was going to buy a Tesla, but won't now because of this. Our values tend to go right out the door, or more accurately , exposed for what they really are, when we have to make a choice.
Someone else might bite, but I don't need to engage your bullet points since the problem's further upstream: Those are generalizations.
A lawsuit is a specific claim regarding specific events. The verdict isn't affected by "it's actually happening out there tho".
People have been making claims about sexual harassment in Hollywood for ages. Everyone knows Polanski raped an underage girl back in the 70's and in her autobiography Shirley Temple wrote that some Hollywood bigshot exposed himself to her when she was underage.
Just because you choose not to pay attention doesn't mean that people haven't been reporting it and coming forward. Similarly there've been loads of lawsuits for decades now for all kinds of workplace discrimination.
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.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
You have obviously never worked with Asian people. If you want to hear racism, learn a bit of Chinese or Hindi.
The thing is any people in any group will do it at some level. There are gradations of it but youâ(TM)ll see it anywhere.
The French are also really good at it, while Germans donâ(TM)t say it as much as act upon it.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
You're more right then you know. They are complaining about stuff that happened in 2015. It LITERALLY happened under Obama.
You have obviously never worked with Asian people. If you want to hear racism, learn a bit of Chinese or Hindi.
I know some Mandarin, and the worst I have heard is "heiren" which just means "black person". But what is often surprising to Americans is the total lack of "political correctness" in China. They will come right out and say "I don't like black people" even to strangers. I remember seeing this commercial when I lived in Shanghai. I thought it was hilariously offensive, but Chinese people didn't see anything wrong with it.
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.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
What I meant is that in Asian societies, what we call "racist" is acceptable.
Those words don't make sense in that arrangement. "racism" is about bias because of race. It has nothing to do with acceptable/unacceptable behaviour except that many people round these parts consider racism unacceptable.
Disliking someone because of skin colour is pretty much the textbook definition of racism, regardless of whether someone standing nearby disapproves or not.
What you mean is "...racism is acceptable".
SJW n. One who posts facts.
What? Was he on the roof of the factory at the time?
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
If you aren't even present to be offended, then how can you offer reliable testimony?
Crimes have to be proven. You can't just form a lynch mob based off of half-baked accusations.
The fact that certain things are illegal now is not something to be glossed over. However you still have to prove your claims either to HR or in a court.
This inclination to engage in virtual lynchings in the press really isn't appropriate and never was.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Black people - in America - found it offensive. Apparently no asian person found it offensive nor did the person appearing in the ad, they wouldn't have made the ad otherwise. In Europe we have black people going as slaves/helpers in religious processions with white saints.
Travel the world, you'll find it interesting how much hullabaloo we make of political issues that to the rest of the world and in context, don't matter.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
What *you* call racism is acceptable in certain cultures and in certain contexts. Even if it is racism per definition, the majority of the world accepts that racism is a natural thing and works with and around it.
It's hard to explain in words to an American like you but travel the world, get to know people and you'll see, people make jokes about their own and other races much more often than American Puritans or SJW would allow them to.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com