Some Tesla factory workers say things are worse now than they were 20 years ago when Toyota and GM ran the car plant
to California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in recent years. Tesla was also cited by OSHA for more safety violations and received more in fines related to vehicle manufacturing than GM , Ford , or Fiat Chrysler from 2017 through the end of 2019. And Tesla has struggled to match NUMMI in one key part of worker safety: making sure processes are designed in a way that minimizes the amount of strain put on workers' bodies, 15 current and former employees said.
But three current employees told Business Insider not much has changed. A current assembly-line worker said Tesla emphasized ergonomics during training, but when he has raised issues about the stress caused by repetitive motions to his supervisor and ergonomics coaches from the company Work Right, which Tesla first hired in 2018, he's been brushed off. Work Right did not respond to requests for comment.
"Why would you want to have a handful of industrial engineers running around trying to fix all these processes when you've got people right there at each process?" he said. While Tesla has sought feedback from production-line workers, the company has not done a good job of implementing it, employees said. Some said they eventually lost the motivation to suggest improvements.
A former engineering manager who worked at NUMMI during its final years and at Tesla until 2017 said while working at Tesla was harder, it was more fulfilling, as the electric-car maker allowed for more creativity than NUMMI did.Tesla workers don't have a unionAnother thing NUMMI workers had that Tesla employees don't is a union.
union representation didn't help NUMMI employees when they lost their jobs after the joint venture's dissolution and that it was Tesla, not UAW, that brought jobs back to the Fremont plant. Tesla faces 2 tests that will shape its manufacturing legacyTesla's manufacturing division has two major tests ahead of it that will show how much the company has learned from past mistakes: the Model Y and a new factory in Shanghai.
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