Elon Musk, Co-Founder and CEO of Tesla Inc.
Alberto E. Rodriguez | fake pictures
Travis County in Texas voted to grant Tesla tax breaks of at least $ 14.7 million to build a new auto plant, and eventually employ thousands, near the Austin airport.
The site where Tesla has proposed to build its next “Gigafactory” is known as the Austin Green development. Tesla has yet to buy the land there, which would cost him an estimated $ 5 million, plus another $ 1.1 billion, at least, to build the plant, which will manufacture the Cybertruck. The property borders the Colorado River.
County officials discussed the proposal in a closed session Tuesday, before listening to speakers at a public hearing that was streamed live on YouTube.
Before that, a local school district, Del Valle ISD, voted to approve Tesla’s plan, called the Colorado River Project LLC, last week.
Tesla citizens, fans and critics spoke at multiple hearings before the district and the Travis County Commission in June and July.
Those who spoke out to express their wishes included members of the Texas-based Tesla Owners Clubs, California and Texas Tesla employees, and business owners who wanted their personnel agencies, construction and auto supply companies to become at Tesla vendors or service providers.
Those who favored giving incentives to Tesla primarily expressed their desire to bring jobs and income to the area for themselves or their children.
In February 2020, the Texas Workforce Commission reported 19,342 unemployed in Travis County, or a local unemployment rate of 2.6%. That number increased in May 2020, after Covid-19 outbreaks and health orders in the state, to 81,466 unemployed, or a rate of 11.6%.
Tesla employs about 10,000 people at its only U.S. auto plant today in Fremont, California.
Others, including environmental and labor advocates and local residents, expressed concern about the lack of worker safety guarantees and the minimum wage for individuals, including teenage students, who may work in entry-level or low-level jobs and average rating at the factory.
Tesla has promised, on paper, to provide a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour to food service workers and custodians. But it has not promised to create a significant volume of higher-paying jobs in the area.
Critics say the payout Tesla is prepared to offer to low-skilled workers is not enough given the high rents, relatively high home prices, and low supply of homes in the area (especially for first-time homebuyers). time).
Critics also spoke about Tesla’s record of crushing unionization efforts at its other factories, and its failures to recognize and fix safety issues in the workplace.
Many of those concerned about Tesla’s safety practices mentioned the ways in which CEO Elon Musk has minimized the risks and severity of Covid-19, and the fact that he defied local health orders in California to bring workers back to the Fremont-based company’s auto plant. the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tesla also has a checkered past when it comes to meeting obligations in cities where it has garnered significant incentives to build factories.
For example, in November 2019, New York State officials noted $ 959 million they spent to build and help equip a Tesla solar panel factory in Buffalo. The plant, announced in 2013, was supposed to employ more than 1,000 and manufacture photovoltaic energy, but it never met its solar production or employment targets. This year, Tesla requested an extension by an April deadline to meet those personnel obligations, citing complications related to Covid-19.
More recently, Tesla successfully built a car plant in Shanghai in less than a year, with $ 1.6 billion in loans and other assistance from the Chinese government.
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