Photo: Tesla/Marc Cage
Marcellous Cage prefers to identify as Marc. After working in Afghanistan as a construction project manager and getting injured there, he returned to the US and worked for "over a decade" in the construction industry. Tesla liked his work and made an effort to pluck him from a job with sound recognition. Cage accepted Tesla's proposal, to his regret. He is now suing Tesla for racism and retaliation after trying to do his work.
That is what his lawsuit states that happened from November 5, 2018, until Tesla fired him on December 5, 2020. The racism part is not entirely new, considering the lawsuit California's DFEH (Department of Fair Employment and Housing) filed against the EV maker.
Cage was called "boy," asked about his "brothers" (other African American workers), questioned if his grocery expenses were for a barbecue, accused of stealing stickers (being submitted to a public "investigation" that broke into his locked filing cabinet), and denied a construction engineering team jacket. He also saw swastikas and racial slurs on bathroom walls around the factories in which he worked (Nevada Gigafactory and Fremont). But that is just part of the problem.
In the lawsuit published by PlainSite on February 18, 2022, Cage and his lawyers report severe construction violations. The construction quality manager presents evidence that he tried to warn multiple people at Tesla about the problems, to no avail. He spoke to his supervisors and kept escalating the warnings until he sent messages to Jérôme Guillen, Valerie Capers Workman, and Fernanda Veiga. Guillen and Workman have already left Tesla without addressing what Cage warned them about.
One of the examples he gave relates to welding a pressure vessel on February 26, 2019. Cage noted that Tesla repaired it "recklessly, in violation of OSHA, and without certification required to diagnose, weld, and/or stamp the repair." Summing up what happened, this vessel could explode. The email Cage sent to Guillen and Workman on September 29, 2020, was still about the danger this pressure vessel represented, among other violations. That's almost two years of trying to solve safety issues without progress.
The question with adopting proper procedures of inspection and correction was that production would have to be slowed or even interrupted. To avoid that, Tesla allegedly broke the rules more than once. Cage believes some of the violations he points out are still there for any court inspection to confirm.
In the process of trying to get the battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker compliant with the rules, Cage claims that he was demoted and eventually fired. As a former Tesla employee, it is surprising that he managed to file a lawsuit against the company. Usually, these workers are forced into arbitration to prevent their allegations from going public. Regarding Cage, Tesla may manage to take the case to arbitration, but not in time to stop the public opinion from learning what the former construction quality manager has to say.
Should the Superior Court of California confirm that it is competent to appreciate Cage's lawsuit, the decision will not affect only the former employee. Inspection agencies will be obliged to check what Cage pointed out and force Tesla to comply. That may involve fines and other significant losses. If what Cage alleges is true, Tesla may regret it decided not to listen to him.
Cage was called "boy," asked about his "brothers" (other African American workers), questioned if his grocery expenses were for a barbecue, accused of stealing stickers (being submitted to a public "investigation" that broke into his locked filing cabinet), and denied a construction engineering team jacket. He also saw swastikas and racial slurs on bathroom walls around the factories in which he worked (Nevada Gigafactory and Fremont). But that is just part of the problem.
In the lawsuit published by PlainSite on February 18, 2022, Cage and his lawyers report severe construction violations. The construction quality manager presents evidence that he tried to warn multiple people at Tesla about the problems, to no avail. He spoke to his supervisors and kept escalating the warnings until he sent messages to Jérôme Guillen, Valerie Capers Workman, and Fernanda Veiga. Guillen and Workman have already left Tesla without addressing what Cage warned them about.
One of the examples he gave relates to welding a pressure vessel on February 26, 2019. Cage noted that Tesla repaired it "recklessly, in violation of OSHA, and without certification required to diagnose, weld, and/or stamp the repair." Summing up what happened, this vessel could explode. The email Cage sent to Guillen and Workman on September 29, 2020, was still about the danger this pressure vessel represented, among other violations. That's almost two years of trying to solve safety issues without progress.
The question with adopting proper procedures of inspection and correction was that production would have to be slowed or even interrupted. To avoid that, Tesla allegedly broke the rules more than once. Cage believes some of the violations he points out are still there for any court inspection to confirm.
In the process of trying to get the battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker compliant with the rules, Cage claims that he was demoted and eventually fired. As a former Tesla employee, it is surprising that he managed to file a lawsuit against the company. Usually, these workers are forced into arbitration to prevent their allegations from going public. Regarding Cage, Tesla may manage to take the case to arbitration, but not in time to stop the public opinion from learning what the former construction quality manager has to say.
Should the Superior Court of California confirm that it is competent to appreciate Cage's lawsuit, the decision will not affect only the former employee. Inspection agencies will be obliged to check what Cage pointed out and force Tesla to comply. That may involve fines and other significant losses. If what Cage alleges is true, Tesla may regret it decided not to listen to him.
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