FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured on an electric car at the Tesla Inc. vehicle facility in Costa Mesa, California, U.S., November 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A California state judge has ruled that 6,000 Black workers at Tesla's flagship assembly plant cannot sue over alleged racial harassment as a class, reversing an earlier ruling in a major victory for CEO Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker.

California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon late on Friday ruled that the 2017 lawsuit could not move forward as a class action because lawyers for the plaintiffs were unable to find 200 class members willing to testify ahead of a trial scheduled for 2026.

Borkon said he could not trust that the experiences of a smaller sample of workers could be applied to the entire class.

A different judge had certified the class in 2024, but Borkon said that was based on the belief that a trial in the large-scale case would be manageable.

Tesla and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The company has said that it does not tolerate workplace harassment and that it has fired employees who were engaged in racial misconduct.

The named plaintiff, former assembly-line worker Marcus Vaughn, alleged that Black workers at the Fremont, California factory were subjected to a range of racist conduct including slurs, graffiti and nooses hung at their workstations.

A trial had been scheduled for next April, two months before a separate trial involving similar claims against Tesla by a California state civil rights agency.

Tesla is also facing race discrimination claims in federal court in California brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. The company has settled other race discrimination lawsuits involving single plaintiffs.

The case is Vaughn v. Tesla, California Superior Court, Alameda County, No. RG17882082.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Will Dunham)