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Given that Elon Musk ran the Tesla Fremont California factory in a way that was found guilty of this [1]: As they did after the first trial, these factors agai
by Veserv 3y ago
Given that Elon Musk ran the Tesla Fremont California factory in a way that was found guilty of this [1]:
As they did after the first trial, these factors again favor a high punitive damages award here. First and most importantly, Tesla's actions were grievously reprehensible. Diaz was subjected to a grossly racist workplace, with racist conduct perpetuated not only by coworkers or subordinates but also-and perhaps especially-by supervisors like Martinez, who called Diaz racist slurs and drew the racist picaninny, and Hurtado, who directed the N-word at Diaz over 30 times and informed Diaz that he wished he could get all “N-words” fired. Cf. Flores, 873 F.3d at 760; Zhang, 339 F.3d at 1043. Reports to authority often went unanswered and when the company responded, it often failed to interview witnesses or review security footage. Worse yet, a supervisor who learned of Diaz's complaints subsequently failed to investigate and was in fact told by Tesla to not personally investigate the complaint. Tr. 3-541:22-542:1, 544:21-545:2, 549:13-550:16. Another supervisor was told to stop investigating before he reached a conclusion, and Diaz and his harasser ended up being reprimanded for the conduct directed at Diaz. See Tr. 2387:10-390:18, 395:21-396:7. Martinez, a Tesla supervisor and the main perpetrator of racist conduct, still works at Tesla, nearly a decade after he forced Diaz to endure repeated cruelty and shame. Not only did the company turn a blind eye to the racism, but the jury also could have interpreted the evidence to show that Tesla knew what it was supposed to do and affirmatively chose to not carry out the proper responses.
It should be no surprise that a CEO running a organization that supports grievously reprehensible racist conduct and actively retaliates against worker complaints of shocking racial discrimination and harassment like swastikas on the walls would also support retaliation against people highlighting their less mustache-twirling evil.
If the swastikas on the walls of your car factory do not get you, firing some people over a letter will not either.
[1] https://casetext.com/case/diaz-v-tesla-inc-7 https://casetext.com/case/diaz-v-tesla-inc-7