Tesla workers infected with coronavirus after Elon Musk reopens factory

Elon Musk risked arrest sending Tesla workers back to the assembly line during a pandemic. Now they’ve been infected with coronavirus.

Workers at Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla have begun contracting coronavirus after their tech maverick boss reopened its California factory against the local county’s wishes and advice.

Alameda County waited until after Tesla had started operating again at the Fremont factory before it approved the company’s plans to do so.

When the plant reopened Musk himself was on the line, daring the county to arrest him for it.

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2020

Previously Tesla had kept the plant open after it had been told to shut, and had also sued the county (the lawsuit was dropped with no explanation).

Musk called shelter-in-place restrictions “fascist” in a tirade to investors, and threatened to move the company to another state before Tesla eventually got its way.

Tesla’s agreement with the county involved social distancing precautions and staggered shifts for the factory’s close to 10,000 workers.

Elon Musk brought Tesla workers back to the factory before the local county wanted and now some of them have caught coronavirus. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

But according to the Washington Post, those precautions aren’t always being followed, and workers have been infected.

One worker in the seat assembly plant where two workers were confirmed to have coronavirus who spoke to the Post said the precautions were “like nothing but with a mask on”.

“No social distancing at all when clocking in/out (because) people are … in a hurry to go home or get back to their work station,” the worker said via text message.

The worker added that management weren’t following precautions and “don’t say anything to the associates (because) they’re not doing it either”.

RELATED: Ikea’s plan to save Aussies money

Robots on the assembly line for Tesla’s Model 3 at the Fremont facility. Picture: Brian Molyneaux / WSJ

RELATED: How this electric car cost nearly a billion dollars

Two workers told The Post that supervisors held meetings to tell them the company had reported several cases of coronavirus and those workers had been told to stay home.

As part of its agreement with the local county, Tesla is required to report any confirmed coronavirus cases to the Alameda County Public Health Department, but for the week the plant was opened before that agreement was reached there was no such requirement.

Tesla’s Fremont factory sits near the border of another county. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

An Alameda County spokesperson told The Post it wasn’t aware of any workplace-related infections in the county that week, but if an infected worker lived outside of Alameda County it wouldn’t know.

Tesla’s facility is right on the border of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, and there’s a high chance many of the workers aren’t Alameda residents.