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Tesla

Tesla has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with former employee Owen Diaz after a protracted legal battle.  After filing a lawsuit in 2017, Diaz was awarded a staggering $137 million in 2022. However, US District Court Judge William Orrick reduced this to $15 million and then to $3.2 million.  The settlement terms remain confidential but mark the end of a lawsuit that revealed disturbing practices within Tesla’s Fremont factory. Diaz vs. Tesla Diaz, who worked as a freight elevator operator for less than a year starting in June 2015, encountered

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with major tech giants in a case concerning the alleged use of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  According to Reuters, in a unanimous 3-0 decision, the court ruled that these companies, including Apple and Tesla, cannot be held liable for their involvement in cobalt sourcing. Cobalt sourcing is critical in producing lithium-ion batteries essential for numerous electronics and electric vehicles. The Lawsuit The lawsuit, brought forward by former child miners and

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JP Morgan are among the Wall Street giants that have modified their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As DEI faces scrutiny and right-wing backlash, with accusations of reverse discrimination, companies are cautiously navigating the landscape to avoid potential legal pitfalls.  Changes To DEI Programs Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has changed its “Possibilities Summit” from exclusively being for Black college students to opening the program to white students. According to Bloomberg, lawyers have also advised senior executives to remove references to race and gender

Tesla Inc. is currently involved in a significant lawsuit involving nearly 6,000 Black employees from its California factory.  The group, alleging rampant racism at Tesla’s Fremont plant, received tentative approval from Judge Noël Wise of Alameda County Superior Court to proceed with their class-action lawsuit.  This development underscores a continuing struggle with racial discrimination allegations for the renowned electric vehicle manufacturer. A ‘hotbed’ of racism The lawsuit, initiated in 2017 by Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, claims the factory’s production floor was a “hotbed of racist behavior,” with racial slurs routinely used by co-workers

Tesla has given $2,000 to The Giving Pies, a small Black woman-owned bakery in San Jose, following its cancellation of a significant pie order during Black History Month. The order, initially set for 2,000 pies and then doubled, was worth between $6,000 to $16,000.  However, the cancellation left the bakery with a financial loss of approximately $2,000 and missed opportunities during Black History Month. Musk’s Intervention Voahangy Rasetarinera, the bakery owner, took to Instagram to detail the financial strain caused by Tesla’s decision. “To me, it was clear that Tesla’s

After Elon Musk’s comments criticizing diversity initiatives, Tesla has removed language about having a majority-minority workforce. Tesla has omitted a line from its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In its 10-K filing last month, a comprehensive report on Tesla’s activities throughout 2023, the company removed a line it used a year ago. The original line read, “With a majority-minority workforce, empowering our employee resource groups to take charge in driving initiatives that attract, develop, and retain our passionate workforce is vital to our continued success.” What Has Musk Said?

Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing company, SpaceX, is facing a class action lawsuit for alleged wage discrimination based on gender and race. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that SpaceX systematically pays its women and minority employees less than their white male counterparts for equivalent job roles. Same work, different pay Ashley Foltz, a propulsion engineer at SpaceX, joined the company in September 2022. She was hired at a salary of $92,000, while her white male counterparts with similar or less experience were offered as much

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against electric car maker Telsa for tolerating widespread and racial harassment of Black employees. Widespread Racism and Retaliation The lawsuit claims that Tesla violated federal law by tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees and subjecting some workers to retaliation for opposing the harassment. According to the suit, from at least 2015 to the present, Black employees at Telsa’s Fremont, California manufacturing facilities have routinely endured racial abuse, stereotyping, and hostility. They have also been subjected

A Black former assembly line staffer at Tesla is seeking to add almost 240 other workers to his 2017 lawsuit against the electric vehicle manufacturer which he described as a “hotbed for racist behavior.” A pattern and practice of race discrimination Marcus Vaughn, who formerly worked at Tesla’s Fremont factory in California, claims that Tesla allowed a “pattern and practice of race discrimination,” as per Bloomberg. In response to Vaughn’s initial filing, Tesla published a blog post titled “Hotbed of Misinformation. The company denied wrongdoing, stating it had investigated the allegations and fired

Owen Diaz, a Black former worker at Tesla’s Fremont factory, has seen his payout in a racial bias lawsuit against Tesla reduced from $15 million to $3.2 million. Yesterday, after a week-long trial, a federal jury found that Tesla failed to prevent severe racial harassment at its flagship assembly plant in Fremont, California. Tesla has been ordered to pay Owen Diaz $175,000 in damages for emotional distress and $3 million in punitive damages. From $137M to $15M In the past year alone, Tesla has faced at least ten lawsuits from

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