Rare Tesla Bias Trial Caps Years of Racism Complaints at Plant

  • Black worker says epithets were commonplace at Fremont factory
  • Automaker has proven hard to beat in closed-door arbitration
Contract workers Owen Diaz, right, and his son, Demetric, shown in Oakland, California, in 2018. Photographer: Michael Short/Bloomberg
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A former factory worker at Tesla Inc. who alleges racism was rampant on the assembly line already has achieved a rare feat: forcing the electric-car maker to fight him in open court.

But when Owen Diaz takes his case to a jury trial starting Friday in San Francisco, he’s up against a company that almost never loses workplace disputes.