Racial Discrimination Suit Against Tesla Seeks To Include More Than 100 Other Workers As Plaintiffs

The problems for Elon Musk continue to pile up in all directions around him. 

Of the many outstanding issues Musk and Tesla (not to mention Twitter) are dealing with is a 2017 lawsuit that called the company a “hotbed for racist behavior.” The plaintiff in that case, Marcus Vaughn, is now trying to add more than 100 workers to the lawsuit. 

Tesla meanwhile has asked a California appeals court to force the complaint into private arbitration, which would prevent a class action status, Bloomberg reported Thursday. 

Five years ago, Vaughn had claimed that “racial discrimination and harassment were widespread at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California”. The company punched back in a blog post and fired three employees after looking into some of the incidents in question. 

Vaughn said he heard the “N-word” used at least 100 times while working at Fremont. He also said that employees called the factory “the plantation” or “slaveship.” 

Vaughn’s lawyers certainly smell blood in the water at Tesla – they also represented a former elevator operator at the company who won a $137 million jury verdict over the company last year for discrimination. 

That case is now in appeals and is expected to be settled within 90 days, Bloomberg noted.