A lawsuit filed by Ozell Murray, a former police officer fired as head of security at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, suggests the plant has a severe sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, and rampant racism problem.
According to the 159-page federal suit, first obtained by The Independent, the officer's team "routinely" confiscated cocaine, fentanyl, and guns onsite. His team also investigated "acts of sexual deviance" and sent employees "home for being alcohol-intoxicated and high on drugs."
The startling allegations aren't the first warnings of workplace trouble at the facility. The Fremont factory has already garnered a reputation for rampant racism, with a previous lawsuit raising concerns over racist graffiti — "KKK epithets, a swastika, and the N-word all over the bathroom" — and mistreatment of workers. Black employees have also said that nooses — a symbol of racial violence from America's history of fatal lynchings — were used to taunt them at work.
Tesla has already settled in court over accusations of racial discrimination at the factory.
Worse yet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a long track record of waging a war against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, while furthering white supremacist conspiracy theories. He even infamously performed two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump's post-inauguration celebration earlier this year.
He has previously blamed the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year on Black firefighters and suggested that Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and shouldn't become pilots. He's also been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, including against employees, on several occasions.
In other words, the abysmal situation at the mercurial billionaire's first car factory in California — a home state he abandoned in favor of Texas years ago — is closely wrapped up in his own personal beliefs.
In his lawsuit, Murray accused Tesla of putting profits over everything.
"Healthy profits have always been more important to the Company than a healthy working environment," reads the suit obtained by The Independent. "For Tesla, more bodies on the manufacturing line meant more vehicles flying out the factory door — no matter how unclean the hands were that were assembling those cars."
According to the complaint, supervisors also abused the company's policy on drug and alcohol use.
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