Seven U.S. senators urged Tesla CEO Elon Musk this week to end his company’s use of forced-arbitration agreements, citing numerous reports of discrimination against workers and safety concerns about the company’s vehicles.
The senators included six Democrats and Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, who typically votes with Democrats. Led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the lawmakers said in a letter to Musk that the agreements allow Tesla TSLA to avoid accountability and public scrutiny. The letter noted that Tesla has faced racial- and gender-discrimination claims for years: “Workers from Tesla’s Fremont factory, for example, appear to have brought at least five times the number of discrimination lawsuits last year than workers at other companies’ comparable plants.” But only a few of the cases have “managed to survive in court” because Tesla has filed motions to compel arbitration, according to the letter.
From the archives : Tesla countersues California agency that filed racial discrimination suit against it The letter followed the recent reintroduction of the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act in both chambers of Congress a couple of weeks earlier by Blumenthal and Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, who jointly introduced legislation on this issue in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The bill is backed by 37 senators and more than 80 House members.