Report: Tesla Workers Test Postive For Coronvirus Days After Defiant Musk Reopens Factory
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Several Tesla factory workers at the company's Fremont plant reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus last month after CEO Elon Musk reopened the plant in defiance of county health orders.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday supervisors disclosed the cases to their teams and that the employees affected were told to stay home, citing other employees with knowledge of the situation.
The company reached an agreement with Alameda County to reopen on May 18 following weeks of Musk defying health orders and ranting on social media and an earnings call about the halt to production. Musk kept the plant open in March even after the county deemed his business non-essential.
Musk has tweeted "FREE AMERICA NOW" and called quarantine and shelter-in-place measures "fascist." Last month, Tesla sued Alameda County over the health order and gained the support of President Trump by again defying the order and reopening the plant.
The move led to negotiations with the county and the agreement on May 18 that gave the electric car firm the formal OK to reopen with the company to restart production if it followed guidelines on social distancing, use of masks, and other measures to prevent the spread of the illness.
However, one of the workers who spoke to the Washington Post expressed concern over a perceived lack of caution on the production line.
"No social distancing at all when clocking in/out [because] people are ... in a hurry to go home or get back to their work station," the worker told the Post in a text message.
Management doesn't say anything to the workers about social distancing because "they're not doing it either," the worker told the Post.
Other workers told the Post some of their colleagues on production lines might disappear for two weeks without explanation, which may be a result of people being quarantined because of potential exposure.
Tesla had not responded to questions about the report as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Alameda County spokeswoman Neetu Balram told the Post there were no known workplace-related infections of county residents associated with Tesla, but if a person tested positive and they were not a resident of the county, it's possible the case would not have been reported to her office.