[CORONAVIRUS] Tesla Employees Expose Social Distancing Not Practiced at All As Some Tested Positive Shorty After Plant Reopened

Tesla employees from the company's Fremont facility have tested positive for COVID-19 just weeks after reopening the plant at the end of May. The employees were told to stay home to be quarantined as the factory continues to remain open.

Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, has had a difficult relationship with Almeda County ever since lockdown implementations in the entire Bay area in March. The factory kept running a few days after the order went into effect before temporarily closing for two months.

Since Tesla wasn't included as an essential service, they remained closed as other businesses began to open in May. For Musk, he expressed his frustration as other auto companies had been approved to re-open except his.

'Yes, California approved (re-opening), but an unelected county official illegally overrode," he tweeted. 'Also, all other auto companies in the US are approved to resume. Only Tesla has been singled out. This is super messed up!'

On May 12, Musk tweeted his action plan to defy county orders and was even willing to get arrested. 'Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules," his tweet read. He also said that he will join the assembly line and if anyone were to be arrested, that it would be just him.

The Fremont employs about 10,000 workers, yet it remains unknown if the plant re-opened with the full capacity of its workforce. Almeda county and Musk finally agreed for them to reopen late May with certain conditions such as implementing social distancing and other ways to prevent the virus from spreading within their facility.

Social Distancing

All employees are required to wear masks and must avoid too much contact with other workers in break rooms. Despite these precautions, two positive cases came from the seat assembly plant, one from the day shift and the other from the night shift.

The official agreement allowed Tesla to reopen on May 18th even though they already began operating a week prior. Officials said that the agreement also states that the company has to report all positive cases, which may be inaccurate since Tesla was 'not required to directly report known cases' before setting terms with the county.

One anonymous worker shared that '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.' They also said that management doesn't practice social distancing and 'don't say anything to the associates [because] they're not doing it either.' Everything seems the same as pre-pandemic days but only with a mask on, they continued.

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Concern for Employees

One supporter of Musk is U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying that the owner is one of California's biggest employers and manufacturers, and that the state 'should prioritize doing whatever they need to do to solve those health issues so that he can open quickly and safely.'

Not everyone agrees as assembly woman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat and author of the AB5 law or the 'gig worker bill,' expressed her concern over the employees. 'And, the deaths from COVID-19 in California are disproportionately Latino. Our communities have been the hardest hit. By far. Maybe that's why we take the public health officials' warning and directions so seriously,' she tweeted two days before Tesla resumed operations on May 12.

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