I see a similar trend with Facebook and the like but for different accusations in the EU and elsewhere. These fines are not enough. When awarding them, the company's stock value and net profits should be taken into consideration and inaction or lack of change after the lawsuit should be considered contempt of the court where the CEO is held criminally liable.
Since it's Tesla, it garners headlines, and that helps with the lawsuits.
Lawsuits at other blue collar workplaces are boring, so they don't make headlines, don't threaten the companies involved, and go nowhere.
It seems Tesla is being targeted for monetary reasons here. Yes the underlying (if true) behavior is bad too. But the number of lawsuits should not be taken to conclude that Tesla has an especially outsized internal problem. Rather, it has an outsized spotlight.
None of this is to defend rude behavior in any workplace. But I doubt Tesla is particularly special except for the headlines aspect, which increases the potential viability and thus the number of lawsuits.
Of course that means it would behoove them to do more to address any behavior issues. I have no reason to think they are interested in perpetuating such behavior.
From the article:
"Tesla's treatment of Black employees was previously highlighted in a federal lawsuit filed by former employee Owen Diaz, who was awarded $137 million by a jury. After the jury trial, a federal judge rejected Tesla's claim that it is not liable for the "disturbing" racist abuse Diaz suffered but reduced the award to $15 million."
If it's "sadly routine" and also unlawful then the people are not "cashing in" but are using the legal system to enforce their rights and ensure that companies are held to account for unlawful conduct. Saying that Tesla doesn't have an especially outsized problem is entirely beside the point. It's not a valid defense to say "sure my activities were unlawful but they weren't much more unlawful than other people - you're just picking on me because I'm high profile."
I don't know whether or not what they did was in fact unlawful, but deciding that is the whole point of the lawsuit.
Not just bad, but illegal.
If Tesla is losing court cases — which they are — then that’s because the judge and jury believe based on the evidence presented and argued that Tesla, as a company, was at fault.
If it’s happened, they SHOULD be sued. No ifs ands or buts about it.
> We should at least consider the possibility this is just a bunch of lowlifes trying to cash in with lawsuits
No, we don’t need to consider that possibility. Judges and juries, who have actually seen the evidence (moreso than you or me), have repeatedly considered that possibility and repudiated it.
Keep in mind Tesla has some of the absolute best legal representation money and reputation can buy. If the claimants’ stories had any exploitable openings for doubt, Tesla’s lawyers would have absolutely (and skillfully) used them to deflect culpability. The fact they are still losing says something.
Or the law itself is impossible to comply with:
https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/wokeness-as-saddam-sta...
>>Even after the case has been litigated, we still do not know what exactly Tesla could have done to avoid the $137 million judgment (it may be reduced on appeal). Employees did in fact get in trouble for using the n-word and drawing racist cartoons. In retrospect, they probably would’ve been safer if they just fired everyone who Diaz or Di-az accused of racism, at least the non-blacks, but there’s no guarantee that would’ve worked either, as they were in an industry that required them to rely on workers who hadn’t yet internalized elite ways of thinking about race. If they had fired black people for using the n-word too, would that have helped or hurt them in trying to avoid a lawsuit? It’s difficult to say, and that’s sort of the point.
>>For next time, there’s little Tesla can do but go all in on diversity training, be as enthusiastic as possible in adopting whatever next race fad comes out of academia, and hope that the next jury isn’t as woke as the one they got this time. Until anti-discrimination laws are rolled back, or come to be based on clear and objective standards, there is no other way.
But as it happens, Ford, along with probably every one large American company, has been targeted numerous times by discrimination lawsuits:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ford+discrimination+lawsuit&...
Also your points were well answered by a different commenter but instead of discussing the good, interesting points, someone just downvoted. This is how it goes with Tesla. It’s some kind of weird thing that happens with companies that make products perceived as luxury, I guess, but in this case aided by short seller media campaigns.
I haven't really seen evidence of false narratives. They definately push negative news.
> Tesla sometimes has to “take the hit” as Elon put it.
Wait, you dismiss what short sellers say because of economic incentives but don't consider that Elon Musk could be putting out a false narrative? Because his entire personal net worth wouldn't collapse to zero if Tesla tanks?
At any rate, a jury trial is as good as you can get to determine truth. After all, highly paid people on both sides present as powerful an argument as they can to twelve disinterested people. How better to figure out what's true?
Just because a case is not proven, does not mean a lawsuit is made up. Most legal systems have innocent until proven guilty and a high standard of proof. Many things which happen cannot always be proven with sufficient amount of evidence even if they happened. A classic case is rape, where it is often hard to produce evidence.
That an individual engage in a lawsuite that is made up can make sense. But when you got multiple people with the same kinds of complaints I think the probability of it being made up drops considerably.
Painting racialized minorities as "lowlifes" because they've got the audacity to speak out about pervasive mistreatment is the kind of hot take I'd expect to see in the comments of Fox News.
Calling minority workers “lowlifes” is classy, and even if illegal race discrimination is pervasive in many blue collar work settings, so what? “Everyone employer does it” isn't a justification, just a reason that imposing consequences to break the practice is more urgent.