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Tesla workers issue?

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...Is it true?

I don't see why the reports of incidences are not true.

Statistically, would there be an ambulance called in for a big factory ever? Even once?

Any competent reporter can look up the records and find out whether an ambulance incidence is true or not.

Statistically, is there anyone who would get injured a big factory ever? Even once?

Same drill here, a reporter can look up the records and find out.

Elon Musk might have a high bar for what a hard working worker means:

If Elon brought his sleeping bag to an assembly line, why should employees demand California lawful breaks that SpaceX just settled below:

SpaceX settles suit, will pay $4M to employees who missed work breaks

He tweeted: "SpaceX and Tesla rated most meaningful work in high tech. Also, most stressful, but that goes with the territory"

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The article quoted Elon:

“I knew people were having a hard time, working long hours, and on hard jobs. I wanted to work harder than they did, to put even more hours in,” he said. “Because that’s what I think a manager should do.”

He did not say that employees got an easy time, short working hours, easy jobs...

It is understandable that Elon Musk has devoted his life to the cause because as he said "that goes with the territory", the question is should you allow your workers to have an easier option of balancing between work, family and health?
 
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Reactions: gowthamn
It's UAW propaganda cloaked in what I'm sure are factual reports.

Every factory job, whether unionized or not, will see things like long hours, dangerous conditions, etc. It's the nature of the work. No one forces these workers to continue being Tesla employees. If they really feel that they are being abused, they should quit and find other jobs, especially if, as the story claims, they are making $10 an hour if they report injuries and get moved into a less stressful job.

I've had lots of jobs over my life that were tough, some of which were union jobs. The unions never did a thing to protect me. I used my right to quit as needed. That's what these people should be doing.

Maybe in the early part of last century unions helped out workers, but we now have labor laws (and in California, a LOT of labor laws) to protect workers. If that's not enough, a union isn't going to do anything other than drain money from the workers and hobble Tesla's ability to innovate.
 
I read some complaints about working with hands above the head.

The following picture is on a SEAT assembly line so other car factories have the same issue.
I think that some approaches is to have some of the workers following a car to work on different posts during their shift.
r


I am more concerned about the number of additional workers needed for the future M3 assembly line,

while the parking situation is already a big issue. A new BART station nearby recently opened but going
from a production of about 100k a year MS/MX to an additional 300k a year M3 would not be simple.
 
Article brought to you courtesy of the UAW in their increasingly blatant efforts to sink their talons into Tesla. I'l bet the thought of ruining the NUMMI factory twice makes them giddy.
It's well worth remembering what happened at the NUMMI factory the first time around. There was an excellent NPR podcast covering that story with lots of interviews. It doesn't seem to be available anymore, though the transcript is still online.
 
Article brought to you courtesy of the UAW in their increasingly blatant efforts to sink their talons into Tesla. I'l bet the thought of ruining the NUMMI factory twice makes them giddy.

A work place can be like a family. And it could be a dysfunctional one.

Lots of times, problems are not announced to the world so we might think hey that's a happy perfect family.

If it was not for UAW, we might never knew these problems ever existed and the family could go on happily as if nothing happened.

Tesla never denies that there are challenges in its work place.

Its position is: It already knew which areas to improve upon so there is no need for UAW to point out some issues.

UAW's position is: It can represent workers so problems could be dealt with smoothly in a contract rather than in one news alert at a time.

An executive has a contract so workers should too.
 
I read some complaints about working with hands above the head.

The following picture is on a SEAT assembly line so other car factories have the same issue.
I think that some approaches is to have some of the workers following a car to work on different posts during their shift.
r


I am more concerned about the number of additional workers needed for the future M3 assembly line,

while the parking situation is already a big issue. A new BART station nearby recently opened but going
from a production of about 100k a year MS/MX to an additional 300k a year M3 would not be simple.
Some plants are set up so that the vehicle height doesn't require the worker to work so awkwardly (e.g. reach up, bend down, etc.) When I toured a Nissan plant in Oppama, Japan in 03, they were trying out having the vehicle raised and lowered to working height.

BMW turns their cars over to avoid the reaching overhead problem. I've seen it in documentaries and in person at their Munich plant. See
that I quickly found. Skip to 8:51.

I toured a Porsche plant at Stuttgart and although they also could turn the cars over (I saw the same type of rigs as at BMW), the guide claimed they tried it with their workers and asked which they preferred. They apparently preferred NOT having the cars turned over. I don't remember the reasons. He said to avoid repetitive stress injuries, they just rotate between different types of jobs that require different postures.
 
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"Ambulances have been called more than 100 times since 2014 for workers experiencing fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains, according to incident reports obtained by the Guardian. Hundreds more were called for injuries and other medical issues."

Math Time: 10,000 workers @ 40 hrs/week * 51 weeks * 3 years = 61,200,000 hours
Lets say an ambulance was called 300 times in those 3 years. That would be one call per 204,000 hours worked.
That comes out to an ambulance call for each individual employee working 40 hour weeks for 100 years.

That seems very low as a normal individual has the ambulance called for them more than once every 23.3 years of just living.

Are my numbers off somewhere?
 
"Ambulances have been called more than 100 times since 2014 for workers experiencing fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains, according to incident reports obtained by the Guardian. Hundreds more were called for injuries and other medical issues."

Math Time: 10,000 workers @ 40 hrs/week * 51 weeks * 3 years = 61,200,000 hours
Lets say an ambulance was called 300 times in those 3 years. That would be one call per 204,000 hours worked.
That comes out to an ambulance call for each individual employee working 40 hour weeks for 100 years.

That seems very low as a normal individual has the ambulance called for them more than once every 23.3 years of just living.

Are my numbers off somewhere?

Electrek's article said that they currently have a reportable incident rate(how OSHA reporting works) of 3.3 per 100 employees. The industry average is 6.7. Average across all industries(private) for the county in 2015 was 3 per 100.

So using OSHA's averages its not really a big deal. I don't know what you could hypothetically lower that to while still having humans in the vicinity of large machinery and chemicals in a huge factory.

Tesla defends safety of its factory after ‘media push’ from the auto workers union

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/osh_10272016.pdf
 
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Reactions: Krugerrand
A news video from CBS This Morning. Tesla auto workers worry increased production sacrifices safety
The injury statistics cited in the report are from 2015. The good news is safety improvements have already been made. Going from two shifts to three have made a big difference in hours worked. Tesla stated that the first quarter of 2017 reflected a 32% reduction in injuries from the industry average. Goal...zero.
 
"Ambulances have been called more than 100 times since 2014 for workers experiencing fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains, according to incident reports obtained by the Guardian. Hundreds more were called for injuries and other medical issues."

Math Time: 10,000 workers @ 40 hrs/week * 51 weeks * 3 years = 61,200,000 hours
Lets say an ambulance was called 300 times in those 3 years. That would be one call per 204,000 hours worked.
That comes out to an ambulance call for each individual employee working 40 hour weeks for 100 years.

That seems very low as a normal individual has the ambulance called for them more than once every 23.3 years of just living.

Are my numbers off somewhere?

Well, yes. One major assumption you make is that you have an ambulance called, on average, every 23.3 years. More realistically, during your working years, you have one called once every thousand years and in your elder years one called once every ten minutes (obviously, being a bit hyperbolic)... I didn't check your arithmetic and I assume that the numbers you pulled were all accurate.

It's possible that the numbers above do or do not indicate a safe factory (e.g. repetitive stress doesn't usually result in an ambulance showing up). In short, I have no idea about your underlying hypothesis, but no, your numbers don't exactly add up.