Rivian workers at the Illinois facility have filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that the company violated safety regulations while producing electric vehicles (EVs).
Neglected Safety Measures
In a report by Bloomberg, complaints state that employees had to share respirators throughout production because management downplayed the importance of safety measures.
Some of the injuries described include a crushed hand, a shattered foot, a slit ear, and broken ribs.
An anonymous Rivian worker claims that upper management ordered them to utilize a tangled mess of discarded electrical wires.
The documents paint a picture of a car company that skimped on quality in its rush to expand into the highly competitive EV market.
Some workers have mentioned how safety procedures were neglected as the company was under more pressure to crank out its signature plug-in pickup truck.
Don Jackson, one of the complainants' workers, stated in an interview with Bloomberg that a certain amount of hazard is associated with production. And they were hoping for a little more attention to safety.
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Filed Complaints
The complaints have been lodged with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration over the course of the previous two months, and they all pertain to the automaker's one functioning facility in Normal, Illinois.
One of the 12 employees has since left Rivian, while the other 11 filed complaints with the help of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which has been seeking to organize Rivian plant workers for the past year.
Several of the complaints detail potential harm risks that did not occur to injury but left workers worried.
Jackson, who started with the firm in March, filed a complaint stating that trucks routinely drift into pedestrian lanes and bulldoze racks in a way that might lead them to impact people accidentally.
In another report, worker Kailey Harvey described the "many near misses" that have occurred when motorized industrial vehicles have come dangerously close to colliding with people.
She noted that sensors installed to show whether trucks were properly secured in place occasionally gave false signals since they were not calibrated to the height of the vehicles.
Rivian's Comments
A spokeswoman for Rivian told Bloomberg that the company does not agree with the employees' claims but that they cannot discuss individual complaints due to privacy concerns.
Rivian employs 6,700 people, so the number of people who have complained is only a tiny portion, the representative stated.
The firm also clarified that they are unaware of any management asking staff to share respirators.
Rivian in Irvine, California, has quickly amassed a large workforce of engineers, car assembly professionals, and factory floor managers from established automakers like Ford and General Motors to staff its flagship facility in Normal, Illinois.
The plant in Illinois can produce 150,000 electric vehicles annually.
As part of its effort to scale up and develop electric cars for the mainstream market, it has also recruited top personnel from Apple and Tesla.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Trisha Kae Andrada
