Help Cristina Fight Elon Musk, Recover from Cancer & End Arb

I’m Cristina Balan, a stubborn immigrant woman engineer, Tesla whistleblower, stage-3B breast cancer survivor, and a cool mom. For over a decade, I’ve battled Elon Musk and Tesla’s legal team after exposing dangerous safety and quality flaws in the Model S. I am starting this fund after many of you share your wish to help me my legal fight, my recovery from cancer, and abolish forced arbitration—a corrupt system silencing workers.

My Tesla Nightmare

I start with Tesla in 2010, I helping build the Model S battery pack, earning awards and my initials on its battery pack after making possible the launch of model s in 2012 - a rare honor. In 2014, while on the interior team, I uncovered Tesla’s cover-up of a deadly flaw: floor mats curling under brake and acceleration pedals, risking accidents. An amazing Mexican engineer had tried fixing this since 2012, but Tesla hid complaints to protect its stock price.

Following Musk’s directive to speak up and not follow the chain of commands which he said he hated, I raised concerns to my VP. After his silence, I told him we will escalate to Musk. Our VP asked us to give him a chance which we all did as a team by Sharing the struggle all of us have each time they tried to raise an issue in a 3-hour team meeting, in which the VP admitted it was a safety issue, one worse than Toyota’s recall. After the meeting Tesla’s response was brutal.

Retaliation and Threats

Instead of fixing the issue, the VP team up with Tesla’s HR and legal teams threatened to deport my immigrant colleagues on green card processes on 1 on 1 meetings. When I’ve seen what is going on I emailed Musk, backed by four other VPs. Minutes before I supposed to meet with Musk, HR and legal cornered me in a dusty room with a bodyguard, forcing me to resign or face humiliation by being handcuffed and career ruin. Tesla coerced me into signing a resignation letter, with HR noting I was “threatened because she spoke up.” A senior lawyer threatened my life and my son’s life if I didn’t destroy recordings of meetings where I was demoted and retaliated against and in which the VP admitted in details about the safety issue. I fainted—the only time in my life

Two Arbitration Battles

Soon after I tried to sue Tesla to find out that when I signed my employment agreement I’ve also signed my 1st and 7th amendments for life. Something that Musk asks everyone who ever worked for him!!!

Tesla’s forced arbitration, used unlike other tech giants, hides abuses. What’s critical to know is that none of the Big 9 tech companies use arbitration bc they know what that hides!

Arbitration #1 (2014-2018): I sued for misclassification, retaliation, and wrongful termination winning over $350,000 in fees and costs after four grueling years, exposing Tesla’s tactics.

Arbitration #2 (2019-2023): After a 2017 article on my case, Tesla’s 600-word response falsely accused me of stealing for a “secret project”—lies easy disproven with the evidence and testimony from Arbitration #1. Crimes that Tesla had 4 years to bring them in the first arb if were true. They didn’t. They couldn’t bc the facts are so clear.

In 2019, I sued for defamation, winning a historic chance to present evidence publicly in a Seattle court and voided all the confidentiality Tesla and Musk had on me. Musk appealed, and sent back to another arbitration no 2 where a biased arbitrator closed the case on a technicality.

I couldn’t just stop and give up my career and accept the crimes Musk and Tesla accused of as a lesson to anyway who dare to stand up and speak up. So… I filed an appeal against them.

Sadly , Days later, I was diagnosed with stage-3B breast cancer.

A Historic Win!!!

Through chemo, radiation, and a double mastectomy, I kept fighting. Last year, with my lawyer, we overturned Arboration #2’s ruling, defeating Musk in his first appeal loss—a precedent for all American workers.

Now, I’m preparing to face Tesla in a public courtroom.

Your Support Matters!!!

Your donation will:

Fund my legal battle against Musk and Tesla.

Cover my cancer recovery costs for my near future so I can get ready for trial.

End forced arbitration, protecting workers’ rights.

Please donate and share this campaign. Follow my GoFundMe for updates.

Together, we’ll expose the truth and ensure no worker is silenced.

Thank you,

Cristina Balan