2 0 2 2 A N N U A L C O M M U N I T Y G U I D E
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Tesla entered economic agreements with Travis County and Del Valle ISD in July 2020 that granted the company tax incentives in exchange for certain commitments, including launching local workforce development partnerships, such as the following:
TECH TAKES ROOT Since July 2020, the Austin metro area has had its share of announcements as technology and manufacturing companies heightened their investments in the area. July 22 Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces Tesla will build its next gigafactory in Del Valle. Dec. 11 Tech company Oracle says it will move its headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin. Dec. 16 Musk’s drilling company, The Boring Co., les permits for a building in P ugerville, north of Austin. Dec. Amazon indicates it will build a 1,005,000-square-foot distribution center in San Marcos. March Tesla says in job postings on its hiring website that it will break ground on a new SpaceX facility in Austin. July Amazon selects P ugerville as the site for a ful llment center set to employ 1,000 people. Oct. 7 Musk announced Tesla will relocate its headquarters to Austin from Fremont, California. November Samsung said it will build a $17 billion semiconductor plant in Taylor, joining an existing facility in North Austin.
2020
COURTESY DEL VALLE ISD
COURTESY AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Del Valle ISD:
Austin Community College: Tesla and ACC launched the START program in 2021. The company hires students and gives them 14 weeks of manufacturing training. START’s second cohort is underway.
Huston-Tillotson University:
The school district has launched a new workforce development partnership with Tesla, allowing students to learn manufacturing and cybersecurity skills and get hired at Giga Texas. The rst cohort graduated in 2021.
The historically Black university announced it was in talks with Tesla for a partnership in July 2020. The university has not given any further updates.
2021
“We literally get more requests for students that are graduating [from ACC manu- facturing programs] than we have students,”ACCAdvanced Manufacturing Chair Laura Marmolejo said. One of those students is Rosie Carter, who recently completed ACC’s Certi ed Production Technician pro- gram after a career in cosme- tology. Carter passed up job o ers from at least four com- panies in favor of hedging her bets on being selected for the START program. “If I can do a small part in renewable energy in cars and kind of getting o the gas mainline ... I’d like to do that,” Carter said. DVISD students are equally eager to nd an in with Tesla, said Alex Torrez, the district’s rst workforce development o cer and liaison with Tesla. “I’ve had several elemen- tary students contact me and tell me they’re Tesla enthusi- asts,” Torrez said. Workers indemand Some local employers have observed that Tesla’s allure is making competition for qual- i ed workers steeper in an already challenging market. Gabriel Spencer, who runs Capital City Electric alongside his wife, Iris, said their business is able to pay
competitively, but candidates are often drawn to the longer contracts that Tesla can o er. “My wife and I have had a hell of time nding quali ed applicants,” Spencer said. Musk has said even candi- dates without a high school diploma could be considered for certain positions, and Hu man said most people are “within a certi cation” of becoming quali ed for a posi- tion at the factory. Some local advocates, how- ever, are concerned that cer- tain workers are being shut out of jobs with Tesla. Ofelia Zapata, an Austin ISD trustee and member of the Texas Anti-Poverty Project, a group that meets with Tesla to discuss opportunities for the local workforce, criticized Tes- la’s lack of outreach to people without internet access orwho do not speak English. “[We] continue to … hold Tesla accountable to ensure that residents of Travis County get rst shots at these jobs,” Zapata said. At DVISD, however, Tor- rez said some students who speak English as a second lan- guage were members of the rst cohort to move through the district’s training partner- ship with Tesla. “Obviously, language canbe a barrier,” Torrez said. “[But] if you can’t speak really great
English, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of this program. It’s about learning the skills.” ‘The costs of progress’ While the gigafactory rep- resents thousands of jobs for Austin natives, it also fore- shadows a potential in ux of people from other areas seek- ing work in Austin. Already, ACC has seen heightened interest in its manufacturing programs from across the country. For locals who do not see Tesla as o ering a personal opportunity, an inpouring of new neighbors may make life more expensive in an already competitive housing and rental market—a fate Mateer called “the costs of progress.” “If I was a local … and all of a sudden there’s all these high-paid workers around, I better hope that I actually own my house,” he said. Hu man said she and her colleagues at the chamber are eyeing the e ect Tesla, Sam- sung and their peers could have on a ordability and infrastructure needs. “This kind of growth requires ... us to keep our eye on intended or unintended consequences,” she said.
2022
SOURCES: AMAZON, BORING CO., ORACLE, SAMSUNG, TESLA, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATION, TRAVIS COUNTY, TWITTER COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
“GIGA?”
HOW BIG IS
Tesla calls its massive manufacturing plants gigafactories, with the pre x “giga” meaning “billion.” According to state permits, Tesla’s new gigafactory in Travis County is more than 4 million square feet in size. That is nearly 87 football elds, or 6 Texas Capitol buildings.
FOOTBALL FIELD 57,600 square feet
For more information, visit communityimpact.com.
SOURCES: NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TRAVIS COUNTY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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CENTRAL AUSTIN EDITION • JANUARY 2022
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