Tesla Racial Discrimination Trial Underway - 'Racist company Profits from an army of production workers, many of whom are Black and Latino, working under egregious conditions'

A trial over car manufacturer Tesla’s alleged racially discriminatory employment practices begins Monday in Alameda County, California, according to Reuters.

The trial is scheduled to run until October 30 before state Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon and is one of multiple similar suits against Tesla. The case will proceed as a bench trial, meaning the judge, not a jury, will determine the outcome.

The 2022 complaint brought by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) alleged rampant racial discrimination at the company’s Fremont factory outside of San Francisco. Plaintiffs claimed Black workers were continually subjected to racial slurs, work-floor segregation, intimidation, and retaliation at the hands of co-workers, supervisors, and managers. Management staff purportedly delegated Black workers more dangerous and labor-intensive work than non-Black co-workers, regularly denied promotion opportunities, and ignored, demoted or fired Black workers for filing complaints about disparate treatment.

As attorneys for the CRD explained:

[A] job at Tesla is often seen as a golden ticket. It is seen as a way for those without a technical background or a college degree to secure a job in tech, and a path to a career and a living wage. Yet Tesla’s brand … masks the reality of a company that profits from an army of production workers, many of whom are people of color, working under egregious conditions.

The suit also cited alleged emails from Tesla CEO Elon Musk in which, upon being notified of purported racial harassment, Musk suggested that “if someone is being a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept the apology.” [MORE]