Tesla reopens California factory in defiance of Bay Area health order


Tesla reopens California factory in defiance of Bay Area health order





A masked man walks in the Fremont, Calif., Tesla plant parking lot on Monday. | AP Photo | AP Photo/Ben Margot

FREMONT — Tesla defied San Francisco Bay Area health officials on Monday by reopening a factory during an escalating standoff over a stay-at-home order that kept the plant closed.

The rebellion by the globally recognized electric automaker underscores the competing pressures on elected officials to reopen the economy. Rising calls for officials to restart commerce are competing with warnings from Gov. Gavin Newsom and health officials that going too far too fast risks a resurgence of the virus.

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But no business owner has been as brash and combative as Tesla CEO Elon Musk. After calling the stay-at-home order “fascist” last month, Musk this weekend threatened to leave the state for Texas or Nevada and announced Tesla would sue county officials for ordering the idled plant to stay closed.

A reflection of the national stakes came from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who sided with Musk during a Monday interview with CNBC. “California should prioritize doing whatever they need to do to solve those health issues so that he can open quickly and safely,” Mnuchin said.

The Big Three Detroit automakers plan to reopen their plants next Monday, all using a “phased” approach to start gradually bringing workers back and following a protocol on masks and social distancing developed with the United Auto Workers union. Tesla is not unionized. Ford has published a playbook of new procedures, including temperature checks, no-touch doors and masks. The company has even tried out bracelets that buzz when employees are within six feet of each other.

Musk himself confirmed on Twitter that the Fremont plant was resuming production “against Alameda County rules” and publicly dared California to stop him. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me,” Musk wrote.

Fremont facility’s parking lot was packed Monday and some contract workers told POLITICO they were back at work. Deflecting Musk’s provocation, Alameda County said Monday that officials had communicated to Tesla that it can only maintain basic operations and hope the company would “comply without further enforcement measures.”

“We look forward to reviewing Tesla’s plan and coming to agreement on protocol and a timeline to reopen safely,” the county said in a statement.

Newsom last week allowed manufacturing to reopen, citing flattening hospitalization rates. But all six Bay Area counties, including Alameda, where Tesla is located, have opted to keep manufacturing plants closed to help control their infection curve.

The Democratic governor said Monday that he was unaware that the company had reopened its plant and called the matter an issue for Alameda County. But Newsom said he hoped for a resolution that could see the factory open next week.

Newsom’s extensive ties to Silicon Valley include a longstanding relationship with Tesla’s eccentric CEO. Newsom acknowledged on Monday having known Musk for “many, many years” and said they had spoken recently. Newsom said he still holds “great reverence” for the company and signaled his desire to keep the firm in California.

“We look forward to many, many decades of that relationship,” Newsom said.

The pandemic has tested Newsom’s ties to Musk. Earlier this year, Newsom extolled Musk’s “heroic” pledge to equip California hospitals with more ventilators, but Newsom subsequently acknowledged that donation did not materialize and health officials said that they received bilevel positive airway pressure units, not ventilators. After Musk vehemently criticized the lockdown, Newsom demurred that “good people can disagree.”

Even before this standoff, California’s relationship with Tesla faced some growing pains. Long hailed as one of the state’s most iconic engines of innovation, the electric car maker has faced scrutiny over labor conditions at its plant — which used to be a unionized business operated by Toyota and GM — and Musk’s unfulfilled promise for coronavirus help. The company has spent some $2.5 million lobbying Sacramento since 2017.

After Musk said he would move his company out of California, some elected officials have responded with a conciliatory tone toward Tesla. Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine tweeted he “would be really sad and disappointed” if Tesla moved its headquarters elsewhere and pronounced himself “ready to help,” noting Tesla is “employing people, paying taxes, and helping to solve the climate crisis.”

A prominent business group urged health officials to “work with Tesla and other employers in figuring out a plan that can allow them to safely resume operations sooner rather than later.” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo defended Musk against criticism, tweeting that elected officials must have “civil conversations about challenges re-opening safely.”

“Why are pot stores open, but book stores closed? We’ll lose public confidence & public health compliance if we don’t engage w/each other as adults,” Liccardo tweeted at a critical lawmaker.

Elected officials who have championed Silicon Valley, like Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), urged a balance. Low said in a message to POLITICO that Musk should “pick up the phone” and resolve his issues by talking to elected officials, rather than go to the courts.

Others have lambasted Musk for putting profits ahead of worker safety. Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), whose district is adjacent to the Fremont plant, said in a message to POLITICO that “Mr. Musk seems to be unaware of the Governor’s deference to county health departments” and called Musk’s critique of Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan “both disrespectful and unproductive.”

“I trust the opinion of an appointed public health official with the expertise possessed by Dr. Pan with a focus on the health of the community over the Twitter rants of an unelected elitist whose focus is to appease Wall Street investors,” Kalra said.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), a vocal critic of tech industry labor practices, summed up her attitude toward the company in a three-word tweet: “F*ck Elon Musk.”

“We subsidized Tesla as they operated with severe safety issues & actively union busted. They got used to it,” she said in a followup tweet.

Tesla and California politics have long been intertwined. Tens of millions of dollars in state subsidies have nurtured Tesla’s growth. Elected officials recognize the dual benefits of a company that is both a leading producer of low-emission vehicles — a sector that California has aggressively sought to grow as part of its ambitious climate change goals — and a source of manufacturing jobs.

“I have more confidence moving forward to be able to support a company that this state has substantively supported for many, many years,” Newsom said on Monday.

In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers courted a potential battery plant by dangling tax credits; in the end, Tesla decided to put its “gigafactory” in Nevada, which The Sacramento Bee editorial board called a “punch to the gut.”

In the years since, Tesla has faced increasing scrutiny over its labor record. State regulators investigated revelations that officials may have suppressed injury statistics at the Fremont plant; a probe confirmed underreporting, and Tesla was separately fined for safety hazards at a “tent” production line. Auto unions have alleged that Tesla suppressed organizing efforts, which an administrative law judge concurred with last year; Tesla has challenged that conclusion.

While Tesla has dismissed allegations of subpar working conditions as the product of a union organizing campaign, lawmakers responded by pushing to have labor regulators condition state rebates on automakers certifying “fair and responsible” labor standards. In a formal critique of that effort, Tesla reminded officials that it was “one of the largest manufacturing employers in California.”

Tanya Snyder contributed to this report.




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