Tesla has already started making cars again at its California factory

[Karlston]

Tesla has already started making cars again at its California factory

While locked in a battle over whether it can legally reopen 

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Tesla began making cars again at its Fremont, California plant over the weekend despite an ongoing battle with local officials about whether it should remain closed during the pandemic, The Verge has learned. The company called back some of its workers and has completed around 200 cars Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, according to two current employees. This all happened as CEO Elon Musk threatened on Twitter to move Tesla’s operations out of state and sued the county over its stay-home order.

 

Other workers are being told to report to work later this week, according to these employees, who were granted anonymity out of fear of retribution. News of the employees being called back was previously reported by Business Insider.

 

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Alameda County’s Public Health Department declined to comment.

 

Tesla’s Fremont factory has been closed since March 23rd, one week after Alameda County issued the initial stay-home order, and a few days after the governor of California issued a statewide version. The company had spent that intervening time trying to convince local officials that it should be allowed to keep making its electric cars because of Department of Homeland Security guidance that auto manufacturing is “national critical infrastructure.”

 

Alameda County officials said on Saturday that they were “communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team on the ground in Fremont,” and that the company was engaged in “a collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla’s factory.”

 

But the county officials said they had still not reached an agreement with the company on whether it could reopen its factory. At the same time that the officials released their statement, Tesla sued the county over the stay-home order.

 

Developing...

 

 

Source: Tesla has already started making cars again at its California factory (The Verge)

[Alanon]

This is an interesting problem, however I don't agree with Verge's slant on this.  As far as I understand it, the governor allowed openings, but the county authorities refused to allow that to happen and are making some additional demands/dragging their heels. So the larger issue appears to be - and I'm no legal scholar, to be clear - do the local authorities have the right to countermand gubernatorial edicts? Now if there are some long-standing precedents that make this a normal thing, then Musk is simply in the wrong about the general constitutional argument.

 

What's also not clear to me is the central point of Verge's reporting. They say that the workers are afraid for their safety, disappointed in Tesla, and that they need the money. Are we to expect that the workers are magically going to feel comfortable with the situation after the county rubber-stamps Tesla? Unless they have an unnatural faith in their county officials and their expertise, those that are afraid are going to remain afraid regardless of whether they return to work today or a week or two later than Musk wants, and whether the county believes that to be a good idea or not.

 

This is what bothers me the most. In mentioning the workers, The Verge is exploiting their fears as a foil to criticise Tesla in an underhanded way. And if everybody is so concerned for the welfare of the factory workers, I'm not seeing any special support coming their way from the county or Verge? So basically, Tesla is at fault for making the workers afraid, and the critics' idea is... what exactly? That they should starve in safety? I'm getting tired of these takes... Frame the issue in a very particular way, placing the burden solely on one party, and then offer no solution whatsoever, abdicating any responsibility for the preponderance of issues as they are currently being debated and the damage that that is doing to finding workable solutions.

[Karlston]

Musk dares county officials to arrest him as he reopens Fremont factory

Tesla sued Alameda County in federal court on Saturday over the shutdown order.

Enlarge / Elon Musk in 2020.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Getty

344 with 178 posters participating

Elon Musk is planning to defy county officials as he battles to reopen Tesla's Fremont factory in the face of a continued shelter-in-place order in Alameda County, California, Musk announced on Twitter on Monday.

 

"Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules," Musk tweeted. "I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me."

 

Tesla has also filed a federal lawsuit against public health officials in Alameda County. County officials have ordered Tesla to keep the factory closed under a county-wide shelter-in-place order. Tesla argues the order contradicts instructions from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and violates the US Constitution.

 

Alameda County's shutdown order was part of a coordinated effort among Bay Area jurisdictions in mid-March to stop non-essential activities and slow the spread of COVID-19. Tesla CEO Elon Musk chafed at the order, initially arguing that the Fremont factory was considered an essential facility and finally shutting the plant down on March 23, a week after the order initially took effect.

 

California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his own statewide shutdown order on March 19. That order lasted until last week, when Newsom announced plans for gradually reopening California's economy. That prompted Tesla to announce to employees in a Thursday email that the factory would reopen. Alameda County officials objected, pointing out that Alameda's order was still in place.

 

Musk was furious. "The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!" he tweeted on Thursday. He called Alameda's decision "the final straw" and said that "Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately."

 

He vowed to file a lawsuit—a promise he kept on Saturday.

Tesla says Alameda County contradicts state orders

Tesla's legal case hinges on a single sentence in Gov. Newsom's March 19 shutdown order: "I order that Californians working in these 16 critical infrastructure sectors may continue their work because of the importance of these sectors to Californians' health and well-being." Newsom was referring to 16 sectors of the economy—including financial services, chemicals, and information technology—that the federal government defines as critical infrastructure. Crucially, those 16 sectors include transportation and energy; Tesla argues that it's part of both sectors.

 

Tesla argues that this sentence in Newsom's order overrides county orders on the subject, blocking them from shutting down companies in critical industries. But it's not entirely clear if the phrase "may continue their work" was intended to preempt local decisions or if it was merely Newsom's way of saying the state order wasn't shutting these companies down.

 

On May 7, California public health officer Sonia Angell issued a new order lifting some statewide restrictions. The order stated that "a local health jurisdiction may implement or continue more restrictive public health measures if the jurisdiction's Local Health Officer believes conditions in that jurisdiction warrant it."

 

During a Monday press briefing, reporters peppered Newsom with questions about the dispute. Newsom answered like a politician, expressing admiration for both sides and confidence that they'd work out a deal. Speaking of Tesla, Newsom said he had "great reverence for their technology, for their innovative spirit, for their leadership."

 

But he also stressed that "it's county-led enforcement in these cases." He didn't endorse Tesla's view that Alameda County's order was inconsistent with Newsom's own order.

14th Amendment

Tesla's lawsuit also claims that Alameda County's order violates Tesla's due process rights under the 14th Amendment. The courts have ruled that the Constitution requires government officials to have a "rational basis" for policies that implicate peoples' rights. Tesla argues that Alameda County's policies fail this test.

 

"Tesla is permitted, and continues, to operate its factory and other facilities in neighboring San Joaquin County," Tesla writes in its lawsuit. "There is no rational basis for this disparate treatment of two neighboring Tesla facilities."

 

Tesla seems to be arguing here that it's unconstitutional for neighboring jurisdictions to have different laws if those laws negatively affect someone's rights. It's a position that at least one legal scholar has greeted with skepticism, as it could have radical implications if federal courts accepted it.

 

 

Source: Musk dares county officials to arrest him as he reopens Fremont factory (Ars Technica)