“We’ve had discussions with the Alameda County health authorities and show them exactly what we’re doing and they’ve been satisfied with it,” Shah said on an April 7 earnings call.
Faceboook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose staff can more easily work from home than Musk’s manufacturing employees, has voiced his concern about lifting stay-home measures too soon.
“While there are massive societal costs from the current shelter in place restrictions, I worry that reopening certain places too quickly before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worse longer-term health and economic outcomes,” Zuckerberg said during Facebook’s April 29 earnings call.
Back to Work
On the same day, Musk called shutdown orders “fascist” and unconstitutional, likening them to forcible imprisonment and saying they were “breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong.” His comments were embraced by some Silicon Valley venture capitalists and political conservatives.
Tesla released a 38-page “Return to Work Playbook” late Saturday laying out the safety protocols it will adopt at all of its facilities. While the company will disinfect work areas, enforce social-distancing precautions and provide personal-protective equipment, among other measures, the document doesn’t include any plans to test workers other than by checking their temperatures.
Alameda officials have said more testing needs to come online and that Covid-19 case counts need to drop before they’ll feel comfortable moving to the next phase of reopening.
Tesla has signaled it may disregard Alameda’s order, saying in a blog post Saturday that it had “started the process of resuming operations.” Several Fremont workers shared text messages with Bloomberg News in which supervisors were calling them back to the factory.
“Our employees are excited to get back to work, and we’re doing so with their health and safety in mind,” the company said.
--With assistance from Dana Hull, Ed Ludlow and Josh Eidelson.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.