Elon Musk isn’t just legendarily anti-union, with a record of violating the National Labor Relations Act at Tesla and Space X. He’s also got a rap sheet with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as detailed in a seven-page memo put out by the national AFL-CIO April 10.
According to the memo, his electric car maker Tesla has 27 open cases with OSHA, with fines totaling more than $300,000. Among the Tesla violations: an electrician who was fatally electrocuted while inspecting an electrical panel he was told was not energized; a contract worker who died from heat stroke; hot metal that spilled on three workers and made their clothing catch fire; and four workers who were exposed to hexavalent chromium.
His rocket company SpaceX has had safety problems too. Worker complaints in Washington state led to OSHA fines after a roll of material crushed a worker’s foot. A 2023 investigation by Reuters found that SpaceX had at least 600 worker injuries between 2014 and 2023, including eight accidents that led to amputations. Musk also discouraged SpaceX workers from wearing yellow safety vests because he doesn’t like bright colors. And he ordered machinery that was painted in industrial safety yellow to be repainted black or blue because he didn’t like how it looked, Reuters reported.
Read the memo here.
