Tesla Workers Claim Racial Bias and Abuse at Electric Car Factory
Owen Diaz, right, and his son Demetric in Oakland, California, on April 10.
Photographer: Michael Short/BloombergOn a fall evening in 2015, Owen Diaz went to drop off food for his 20-year-old son Demetric, whom he’d helped find a job at the same Tesla Inc. factory where Owen operated elevators. As he turned the corner, the two African-American men allege in a lawsuit, Owen saw Demetric’s supervisor condemning his black subordinates with curses and slurs: “All you f-cking n-ggers,” they heard him say. “I can’t stand you motherf-ckers.”
“It made me feel like I was less than a man,” said Owen Diaz. “I couldn’t do anything.” In the end, he is doing something: the two are suing Tesla, along with contracting firms West Valley Staffing Group and Citistaff Solutions, alleging a pattern of racial harassment and hostility.