Coronavirus Wrecked Tesla’s Momentum and Elon Musk Is Furious Mr. Musk opened his California factory this week in defian

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Coronavirus Wrecked Tesla’s Momentum and Elon Musk Is FuriousMr. Musk opened his California factory this week in defiance oflocal orders. He has also criticized the response to the pandemicas “dumb” and “fascist.” By Niraj Chokshi Published May 13,2020Updated May 19, 2020 A few months ago, everything seemed to begoing Elon Musk’s way, as he presided over an upstart electric carcompany that was worth more than General Motors, Ford Motor andFiat Chrysler combined. That company, Tesla, had reported profitstwo quarters in a row, proving that it could earn money even as itgrew. Its stock was surging. Mr. Musk opened a factory in China andwas planning another in Germany. And his other business, SpaceX,was poised to become the first to ferry NASA astronauts to orbitfrom American soil since 2011, a trip scheduled for the end of thismonth. Mr. Musk also claimed vindication by defeating a defamationlawsuit filed by a British diver he had called a “pedo guy.” He wasstaying out of trouble on Twitter, where he has long antagonizedcritics and regulators, who fined him $20 million in 2018 forstatements he made there. His girlfriend was pregnant, too, with ason born this month. But the coronavirus set Mr. Musk off.Society’s response to the pandemic was “dumb” and a “panic,” hesaid, arguing that the threat is overstated. And government stay-athome orders were, in his view, unnecessarily stalling his plans torevolutionize the auto industry and help solve climate change. Heattacked local officials in the San Francisco Bay Area for notletting him reopen Tesla’s factory, which he did this week anyway,in defiance of their instructions. Mr. Musk, the billionaireentrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, has always been volatile. Hislatest attacks and statements have raised questions about Tesla’sfinancial health and his own judgment, but they also reflect arecognition of the influence he wields as one of the technologyindustry’s best-known iconoclasts. “This is somebody who knows thatwhat he says gets heard across the globe, and tries to make a pointabout why he doesn’t take system-level constraints as a given,”said Rahul Kapoor, a professor of management at the University ofPennsylvania’s Wharton School. Mr. Musk’s anger was stoked in March2020 when local officials ordered Tesla to close its factory, inFremont, Calif., just as the company was poised to accelerateproduction of a highly anticipated new sport utility vehicle, theModel Y. Less than a year earlier, the company had been desperatefor cash, and Wall Street had grown increasingly sceptical thatTesla could become anything more than a maker of luxury cars thatonly a sliver of humanity could afford. But Tesla’s fortunes hadstarted to turn before the pandemic. In October 2019, the companyannounced a quarterly profit, a sign that it had solved productionproblems. Tesla’s stock began a long, astonishing rally. Sharespeaked at $917 in February, up from $350 only three months before.Despite suffering along with the broader market in March and April,the stock closed at $790.96 a share on Wednesday, valuing thecompany at about $146 billion. By contrast, investors value G.M.,which produces many more cars than Tesla, at less than $31 billion.By March 2020, Tesla was on a tear. Despite being slowed by theoutbreak in China, the new Shanghai factory had reopened. InEurope, Tesla’s Model 3 sedan was outselling cars made byautomakers like Volkswagen. The carmaker had just begun deliveriesof the Model Y, which starts at about $53,000, in the ballpark ofcomparable S.U.V.s from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. But Mr. Musk’sdreams of dominating the car industry were put on hold when AlamedaCounty forced the Fremont plant, which brings in most of thecompany’s revenue, to shut down in late March. That frustrated Mr.Musk, who had long dismissed the seriousness of the coronavirus. Hehas promoted unproven research suggesting that deaths from thevirus are overstated and, around the time the factory was closed,predicted that there would be zero new cases in the United Statesby the end of April. (There were almost 32,000 new cases on April30.) Mr. Musk resisted closing the plant, and in a late-April 2020call with analysts called stay-at-home orders “fascist.” “They’rebreaking people’s freedoms in ways that are wrong and are not whypeople came here or built this country,” said Mr. Musk, who is anative of South Africa. That week, he posted several odd messageson Twitter. Tesla’s stock was “too high,” he said, and added thathe would sell “almost all physical possessions,” including hishomes. Last week, Mr. Musk’s anger about the factory boiled over,and he threatened to move the factory out of California and suedthe county in federal court. On Monday, Mr. Musk officiallyreopened the Fremont plant, to the frustration of some workers andcounty officials who had been negotiating a reopening plan withTesla for weeks. “I will be on the line with everyone else,” hewrote on Twitter on Monday. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that itonly be me.” Later that day, the county asked Tesla to ceaseoperations until it reached an agreement with local officials. OnTuesday, the county said it had reviewed the plan and “heldproductive discussions” with Tesla. The county said that it hadmade safety recommendations and that if Tesla included them andpublic health conditions didn’t worsen, the company could reopennext week. County officials did not suggest that they would holdTesla to account for ignoring the order, but noted that the Fremontpolice would verify that Tesla was adhering to safety measures asworkers “prepare for full production.” On Tuesday, trucks wereleaving the factory carrying cars and S.U.V.s as masked workersmilled about. New cars were also parked in rows outside. Theparking lot for employees was full. Tesla and Mr. Musk did notrespond to requests for comment President Trump, who has beenpushing states to allow businesses to restart, voiced support forMr. Musk, writing on Twitter on Tuesday that California should letTesla reopen the plant “NOW.” But the president’s statement isunlikely to sway California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat,who has deferred to counties on such issues. The state hasauthorized manufacturing, but Mr. Newsom said Monday that “if acounty doesn’t want to go as far,” local orders would prevail. Mr.Musk’s decision to reopen the factory has put employees in adifficult position. In an email sent on Monday, the company toldemployees that they may remain home but would not be paid if theyhad already used up their time off and might also lose unemploymentbenefits, as determined by local government agencies. On Wednesday,the company said employees who chose not to go in would not bepenalized. Several Tesla employees, who asked to speak anonymouslyfor fear of retribution, said the company was putting a priority onprofits over people. One man who worked at the factory on Tuesdaysaid the company had checked employees’ temperatures at the startof his shift, distributed masks and rearranged a break room. But,he said, little had changed on the production line, where it ishard to avoid coming within six feet of others. As the factoryreopened, Mr. Musk thanked employees for making “the factory comeback to life.” “I have vastly more respect for someone who takespride in doing a good job,” he said in an email, “whatever theprofession, than some rich or famous person who does nothinguseful.” Tesla gave workers permission to stay home rather thanrisk getting covid-19. Then it sent termination notices. When hedefiantly reopened the company’s plant in Fremont, Calif., againstcounty orders in May 2020, Elon Musk promised Tesla employees theycould stay home if they felt uneasy. They would not be penalized,he said. If “you feel uncomfortable coming back to work at thistime, please do not feel obligated to do so,” he wrote in an emailsent to the company’s factory workers in early May that was viewedby The Washington Post. Nonetheless, two Tesla workers say theyreceived termination notices alleging a “failure to return to work”after they opted to take unpaid leave to protect themselves andtheir family members when the factory restarted production thesecond week of May. Elon Musk calls Tesla workers back to thefactory (again). Health officials say no (again). In late April2020, Musk went on an erratic tweetstorm that culminated in hiswriting “FREE AMERICA NOW” in response to widespread stay-at-homeorders. He launched into an expletive-laden rant on the company’searnings call the next day, labelling quarantine measures “fascist”and demanding that politicians return people’s “freedom.” Muskdefiantly reopened the factory in early May, winning PresidentTrump’s support as he bucked the county’s orders once more.Ultimately, county officials backed down and agreed to allow Teslato fully reopen May 18th, 2020. The Post reported earlier in June2020 that workers at the factory’s seat assembly plant were toldmultiple colleagues had tested positive for the coronavirus — andAlameda County officials confirmed Tesla had reported coronaviruscases in Fremont. Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s vice president forenvironment, health and safety, told workers in an email that therehad been no workplace transmissions of the virus, though it wasunknown how the exact origin of each of the cases would have beendetermined. Jane McAlevey, a union organizer who serves as seniorpolicy fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Centrefor Labour Research and Education, said Musk’s treatment of hisworkforce has been typical of tech companies in Silicon Valley. “Heis causing untold problems for his workers,” she said. “He hasstressed them out — there’s a huge history there before the covidcrisis of health and safety violations. They’re saddled by the kindof promises and rushed production that get people hurt, and nowhe’s doing it again during a pandemic.” Since learning of thecases, some workers say they’ve been beset by fear of coming downwith covid-19. It’s a matter of particular concern on the vehicleproduction lines, where multiple workers touch components and sharemachinery. Some pool into an outdoor tent where they assemblescars. Data found cases at Fremont, Calif., factory spiked inDecember Hundreds of COVID-19 cases were reported at Tesla Inc.’sproduction plant in Fremont, Calif., after it reopened in May 2020in defiance of local health regulations, according to a new report.Citing county data obtained by the website Plainsite, theWashington Post first reported that there were around 450coronavirus cases at the plant between May and December, 2020 whencases spiked to 125 cases. About 10,000 people work at the factory.Workers have complained about unsafe conditions at the Fremontfactory for years, and Forbes reported in 2019 that Tesla hadaccumulated significantly more workplace safety investigations andfines by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration than itscompetitors.
2.Discuss whether or not Elon Musk should be held liable for thereported 450 coronavirus cases between May and December 2020, as hedefiantly re-opened Tesla Fremont, California against countyorders.