Tesla orders German factory employees to remain at home due to impending demonstrations.
A halt in production at a German car plant was announced back in January, according to CNN affiliate RTL, who got the information from a representative of Tesla (TSLA). This decision came due to the scheduled protests. Now, instead of just stopping the production at one particular section of the plant, Tesla decided to close the entire factory for all employees, as reported by RTL.
The plant's assembly lines usually operate Monday through Friday. Thursday is a public holiday in Germany, so Friday is known as a "bridge day" between the holiday and the weekend.André Thierig, a senior manufacturing director at the Tesla plant, stated on Tuesday that there will be a "one-day planned production shutdown" on Friday.
A coalition of protest groups, named Disrupt, is planning four days of demonstrations, starting on Wednesday. Disrupt is against Elon Musk's plan to increase Tesla's production capacity almost double at its only European factory. Their concern is that the expansion would need to remove a large area of the surrounding forest and would stress the local water supply.
The production at the plant will end after the late shift on Wednesday and the factory will reopen on the night shift on Sunday. This information was shared in an email sent to employees by Tesla, as reported by German newspaper Handelsblatt.
Workers were informed that with the exception of managers, no one would be allowed access to the factory. The email also mentioned that no buses or trains would be running to or from the plant from Thursday to Sunday due to the anticipated protests, as seen in the Handelsblatt report.
Police in the German state of Brandenburg, where the plant is located, released a statement saying they were prepared for "extensive" operations. They stated that they would receive help from federal police and various other state police forces, and that violently disruptive protests or criminal acts could not be ruled out. If any crimes are committed, the police promised to respond firmly.
The huge factory, situated about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of Berlin, can currently manufacture over 375,000 electric vehicles every year.
The group Disrupt claims on their website that electric cars are not the answer to prevent the use of carbon-emitting combustion engines.
"When building an electric car, the consumption of resources leads to an enormous ecological footprint and further aggravates the global climate crisis," the organization states. They point out the environmental impact of mining for lithium, a key element in the production of EV batteries.
Tesla and Disrupt did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
This incident is the second time in two months that disruption has occurred at the factory. In early March, a spate of extremist activists admitted responsibility for an arson attack on a high-voltage power pylon providing electricity to the factory, which led to the plant being closed for a week.
In a letter published on the alternative German media website Kontrapolis, the arsonists termed themselves the "Volcano Group" and said they had "sabotaged" the factory because it "devours Earth, resources, people, labor, and emits 6,000 SUVs, killer cars, and monster trucks a week."
CNN's Mark Thompson, Olesya Dmitracova and Stephanie Halasz contributed reporting.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
