As of: March 13, 2024, 4:23 p.m
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Tesla boss Elon Musk speaks to employees at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg while holding a child in his arms.
© Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
The attack on the Tesla factory's power supply unsettled many employees.
CEO Elon Musk came to Grünheide on Wednesday to encourage them.
With his commitment to the location, the conflict over expansion is entering the next round.
Grünheide - Tesla boss Elon Musk is sticking to the expansion plans for his factory in Grünheide despite the attack on the power supply and ongoing protests.
During a surprise visit to the factory in Brandenburg, the only Tesla factory in Europe, the head of the car manufacturer supported his employees on Wednesday.
“They can't stop us!” he shouted to them amid cheers and shouts of “Elon” and unequivocally acknowledged the location.
Musk was accompanied on the trip by his son, X Æ A-XII, whom he carried on his shoulders during his appearance in front of the employees.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Musk when asked by a journalist whether there were further plans to expand the facility.
“I think this is a great place.” The employees must have gratefully received his words.
Uncertainty and concern had recently spread among them after an attack on the factory's power supply brought production to a standstill for days.
Work at the plant only continued on Wednesday.
According to a spokeswoman, the full workforce was back on board for the morning shift.
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.
Production came to a standstill for days.
The far-left Vulcan group said it was responsible for the attack.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation.
Elon Musk wanted to encourage them with his speech, emphasized works council leader Michaela Schmitz afterwards.
“He was very happy that no one was injured in the attack and of course he also encouraged the employees to look forward and that we should not let ourselves be defeated,” she described the Tesla boss’s appearance in a tent on the factory premises.
“You can feel the relief among the employees that everyone is happy to be able to come back to work.”
After Musk, plant manager André Thierig spoke to the employees on Wednesday and thanked them for their handling of the situation.
“We don’t take what’s happening here lightly,” he said.
Thierig also announced annual wage increases.
“You can rely on it,” he shouted.
A collective agreement is not necessary.
Thierig promised a bonus system and emphasized: “You are doing great things.”
During his visit to Germany, Musk also met with the heads of government from Brandenburg and Berlin, Dietmar Woidke (SPD) and Kai Wegner (CDU).
“We also talked about the attack on the electricity pylon, which led to the interruption of production,” Woidke wrote on the Instagram platform on Wednesday.
“We agree that this was an act of terrorism against all of us.
Because this was clearly directed against the economic boom in Brandenburg and thus also against the new jobs that were created by the plant.”
It was a reassuring appearance for the state government and the employees.
Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) recently expressed concerns that the attack had lost a lot of trust.
Tesla wants to increase production from the planned 500,000 cars per year to one million, most recently it was extrapolated to 300,000 cars per year.
According to the company, around 12,500 employees work in Grünheide.
In February, the majority of Grünheide residents voted against a planned expansion into a new area with a freight station, which would require clearing forest.
Very close to the factory, environmental activists are protesting against a planned expansion of the Tesla factory.
Environmentalists have had major concerns about the Tesla factory for years.
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 premises.
The initiative said it had nothing to do with the attack.
dpa