'Rampant Racism' At Tesla: 'Swastikas, KKK, The N-Word' Scrawled, Spoken, Lawsuit Alleges

FREMONT, CA — The N-word. Swastikas. "KKK."

Racist words and images were both spoken and scrawled at Tesla's factory in Fremont, according to a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that accused the electric vehicle giant of failing to address "rampant racism" by workers and supervisors.

The lawsuit, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, was filed Feb. 9 on behalf of the company's Black workers, who said they faced segregation, harassment, discrimination and retaliation, and that Tesla ignored those complaints for years.

"As early as 2012, Black and/or African American Tesla workers have complained that Tesla production leads, supervisors, and managers constantly use the n-word and other racial slurs to refer to Black workers," the lawsuit said. "They have complained that swastikas, 'KKK,' the n-word, and other racist writing are etched onto walls of restrooms, restroom stalls, lunch tables, and even factory machinery."

It was commonplace to hear racial slurs on the assembly line, the lawsuit said. But Tesla was, and continues to be, slow to clean up racist graffiti with swastikas and other hate symbols scrawled in common areas, regulators said.

The lawsuit said Black workers were often given more physically demanding positions and low-level contract roles, paid less, and were more likely to be terminated than other workers. Black workers were also often denied advancement opportunities and faced severe discipline more often than non-Black workers, the lawsuit said.

Three Black former employees described the racism and harassment to The Times.

A single mother who worked nights as a cart driver and later as a forklift driver told the newspaper she worked three months straight without getting a day off. She said Black workers were referred to by Latino and white workers — and their supervisors — with the N-word.

“You would hear n— this and n— that,” she told The Times. "It was the norm. It was Tesla’s tradition.”

After filing a harassment complaint with the company's human resources department, the woman said she was no longer harassed. But she was subsequently denied performance reviews and was ultimately fired a year later after hitting a sprinkler head with a vehicle she was driving, she said.

Tesla told The Times that the three workers did not complain to the company about racism. Any discipline handed down from the company, Tesla said, stemmed from their workplace behavior.

The company said the woman committed a “serious safety violation” and that her termination stemmed directly from hitting a sprinkler. The company disputed that she was required to work three months straight and said she received both performance reviews and monetary performance bonuses.

In a Feb. 9 blog post, Tesla called the state's lawsuit "misguided" and said it strongly opposes all forms of discrimination and harassment.

"Tesla has always disciplined and terminated employees who engage in misconduct, including those who use racial slurs or harass others in different ways," the company said.

Tesla planned to ask the court to pause the case and take other steps to ensure "facts and evidence will be heard," the blog post said.

But regulators maintain that Tesla turned a "blind eye" to numerous complaints lodged by Black workers over a decade alleging racial harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

"Even after years of complaints, Tesla has continued to deflect and evade responsibility," the fair employment agency said. "While it claims to not tolerate racial harassment or discrimination at its factories, Tesla’s investigations of complaints are not compliant with law."

Furthermore, CEO Elon Musk told workers to be “thick-skinned” about racial harassment, regulators said. Under state law, Tesla failed to address discrimination and harassment complaints, and even went so far as to discourage workers from complaining, the suit said. Workers were warned their complaints would be ignored, or perfunctorily acknowledged and then dismissed, the lawsuit said.

"Black and/or African American workers also were warned that complaints led to retaliatory harassment, undesirable assignments, and/or termination, especially since [Tesla's] human resource personnel charged with addressing the complaints were allegedly close to the harassers," the lawsuit said.

Tesla was also accused of moving its headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas, to "avoid accountability."