Tesla boss Elon Musk was greeted with cheers and shouts of “Elon” by his employees on Wednesday during a short-term visit to the factory in Grünheide. After the attack on the power supply and the production stoppage at the site for several days, the American came to get an idea of the situation. Around midday he spoke to the employees in a large tent on the factory premises. Production there started again on Wednesday, and the first early shift since the incident showed up for work that morning, a spokeswoman said.
After Musk, plant manager André Thierig also spoke to the employees and thanked them for their handling of the situation. “This is an attack on the giga factory,” he said. “We all stick together.” Thierig also announced annual salary changes. “You can rely on it.” A collective agreement is not necessary. Thierig promised a bonus system and emphasized: “You are doing great things.”
“With the early shift we are back to full staff and producing again,” it was said when asked. The employees are happy about the resumption of production, said works council chairwoman Michaela Schmitz on RBB Inforadio. She can feel great relief from the employees. “People are excited to be able to come back to work.”
The employees are also likely to hope for a commitment to the Grünheide location from Musk. Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) said in the days that followed that trust had been lost as a result of the attack. According to the minister, no negative consequences for the settlement are foreseeable. If all Brandenburg forces react adequately – if the state government, police and others restore the certainly damaged relationship of trust in the location – no consequences can be expected, he recently emphasized. That was also the tenor of the discussions he then had with Tesla managers.
On Tuesday last week, previously unknown perpetrators set fire to a freely accessible electricity pylon in a field in eastern Brandenburg, which is part of the power supply for the car factory in Grünheide. The far-left Vulcan group said it was responsible for the attack. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation.
Very close to the factory, environmental activists are protesting against a planned expansion of the Tesla factory. The police are temporarily tolerating the camp with tree houses until Friday (March 15). With the occupation since the end of February, the “Stop Tesla” initiative wants to prevent the forest from being cleared as part of an expansion of the factory site. The initiative said it had nothing to do with the attack.
The activists are preparing for a possible evacuation of the forest, which belongs to the state of Brandenburg. SPD parliamentary group leader Daniel Keller called on Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) to clear the protest on Friday because it was private property.
Note: This article has been updated with statements from Elon Musk and factory manager André Thierig.