Jun 07, 2022, 23:45 pm
Written by Alan Ohnsman
Published: June 6, 2022
Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has had plenty to say in the past few days about employees at Tesla, his electric-vehicle company. He’s expressed hostility to remote work, demanded that executives spend at least 40 hours a week at the office and floated the idea of firing 10% of Tesla’s workforce because he has a “super bad feeling” about the direction of the economy.
At the same time, Tesla continues to lead all carmakers in workplace safety violations, racking up more infractions and fines in the past three years than all other automakers in the U.S. combined.
Since March 1, 2019, when Forbes reported that Musk’s company had been slapped with more violations and fines under Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules than any other auto company in the U.S., Tesla has been cited 29 more times for infractions at its U.S. facilities, including 22 at manufacturing operations in California and Nevada. The Austin, Texas-based company’s infractions resulted in $393,000 in federal fines.
By comparison, 14 other automakers building cars and trucks in the U.S.—including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Kia, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz—have a combined 21 safety violations and fines totaling $148,488, according to the OSHA database.
“His goal seems to be to churn out as many cars as he possibly can, the condition of the employees be damned,” says Sam Abuelsamid, an auto industry analyst for Guidehouse, senior contributor to Forbes and former Ford engineer. Musk has talked about creating fully automated factories and touts Tesla’s development of the Optimus humanoid robot, but he’s got to rely on plain old human labor for the foreseeable future, Abuelsamid says. “There are limits to what you can do with automation, so he focuses on just pushing the employees as hard as he possibly can.”
Auto plants, like any type of heavy manufacturing facility, can be dangerous workplaces, with heavy metal components, forklifts whizzing around, welding equipment and repetitive tasks that strain workers’ wrists, knees and backs. Tesla, like other auto manufacturers, has tried to maximize employee safety with more comprehensive training programs that, for example, encourage stretching to help reduce strain, and brought in athletic trainers and massage tables for assembly workers. At the same time, Musk continues to push ever more aggressive growth goals, aiming to boost Tesla sales to 20 million units by 2030, up from just under 1 million in 2021.
The company, which eliminated its corporate communications team in 2020, didn’t respond to a request for comment. It has also contested all of the violations found by OSHA, according to the database.
Tesla opened new plants this year near Berlin and in Austin to accelerate Musk’s global ambitions. He’s also touted Tesla’s expanding operations in China and the hard work of employees at its Shanghai Gigafactory.
To keep production running in Shanghai last month in the middle of a strict lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19, Tesla was allowed to restart its assembly line by essentially having workers do what Musk himself once did at Fremont: Live at the plant for days, without leaving. It’s unclear whether Tesla required employees to work under those conditions to keep their jobs or if the effort was entirely voluntary.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman...iolations/
Published: June 6, 2022
Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has had plenty to say in the past few days about employees at Tesla, his electric-vehicle company. He’s expressed hostility to remote work, demanded that executives spend at least 40 hours a week at the office and floated the idea of firing 10% of Tesla’s workforce because he has a “super bad feeling” about the direction of the economy.
At the same time, Tesla continues to lead all carmakers in workplace safety violations, racking up more infractions and fines in the past three years than all other automakers in the U.S. combined.
Since March 1, 2019, when Forbes reported that Musk’s company had been slapped with more violations and fines under Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules than any other auto company in the U.S., Tesla has been cited 29 more times for infractions at its U.S. facilities, including 22 at manufacturing operations in California and Nevada. The Austin, Texas-based company’s infractions resulted in $393,000 in federal fines.
By comparison, 14 other automakers building cars and trucks in the U.S.—including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Kia, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz—have a combined 21 safety violations and fines totaling $148,488, according to the OSHA database.
“His goal seems to be to churn out as many cars as he possibly can, the condition of the employees be damned,” says Sam Abuelsamid, an auto industry analyst for Guidehouse, senior contributor to Forbes and former Ford engineer. Musk has talked about creating fully automated factories and touts Tesla’s development of the Optimus humanoid robot, but he’s got to rely on plain old human labor for the foreseeable future, Abuelsamid says. “There are limits to what you can do with automation, so he focuses on just pushing the employees as hard as he possibly can.”
Auto plants, like any type of heavy manufacturing facility, can be dangerous workplaces, with heavy metal components, forklifts whizzing around, welding equipment and repetitive tasks that strain workers’ wrists, knees and backs. Tesla, like other auto manufacturers, has tried to maximize employee safety with more comprehensive training programs that, for example, encourage stretching to help reduce strain, and brought in athletic trainers and massage tables for assembly workers. At the same time, Musk continues to push ever more aggressive growth goals, aiming to boost Tesla sales to 20 million units by 2030, up from just under 1 million in 2021.
The company, which eliminated its corporate communications team in 2020, didn’t respond to a request for comment. It has also contested all of the violations found by OSHA, according to the database.
Tesla opened new plants this year near Berlin and in Austin to accelerate Musk’s global ambitions. He’s also touted Tesla’s expanding operations in China and the hard work of employees at its Shanghai Gigafactory.
To keep production running in Shanghai last month in the middle of a strict lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19, Tesla was allowed to restart its assembly line by essentially having workers do what Musk himself once did at Fremont: Live at the plant for days, without leaving. It’s unclear whether Tesla required employees to work under those conditions to keep their jobs or if the effort was entirely voluntary.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman...iolations/