Tesla News: Mnuchin Agrees With CEO Elon Musk, Says California Should Help Company’s Auto Factory Reopen

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that he supports Tesla CEO Elon Musk in its fight with California authorities and said the state should prioritize helping the company amid the coronavirus pandemic. Musk has filed a lawsuit against Alameda County, California, as a stay-at-home order has effectively shut down the company’s electric vehicle plant in Fremont.

“I agree with Elon Musk. He’s one of the biggest employers and manufacturers in California, and California should prioritize doing whatever they need to do to solve those health issues so that he can open quickly and safely,” Mnuchin said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

Mnuchin is incorrect that Tesla “is one of the biggest employers and manufacturers in California,” as the company has just 10,000 employees at its Fremont facilities. According to job search website Zippia, California has 32 companies with 30,000 employees or more.

Musk has threatened to take Tesla out of California and move the company’s operations to Nevada and Texas. The Fremont factory has been shut down since March 23, after initially resisting the shutdown order in Alameda County.

“They’re going to find that if he’s threatened he’s going to move his production to a different state,” Mnuchin continued.

California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, has responded to Musk’s threat to leave the state, using profanity towards him on her Twitter account. In subsequent tweets, she described her frustration with the electric vehicle company.

“California has highly subsidized a company that has always disregarded worker safety & well-being, has engaged in union busting & bullies public servants,” Gonzalez tweeted. “I probably could’ve expressed my frustration in a less aggressive way. Of course, no one would’ve cared if I tweeted that.”

In September, a California judge ruled that Musk violated labor laws by threatening workers with losing their stock options if they unionize. The judge found that Musk unjustly fired a worker for engaging in union activity.

Musk has frequently criticized lockdown measures, demanding authorities to “give people their freedom back” in a recent tweet and characterizing the restrictions as “fascist.” During the early stages of the outbreak, Musk said the panic surrounding the virus is “dumb.”

But in late March, Musk donated over 1,200 ventilators to New York City as it grappled to meet demand from the outbreak.