The United Auto Workers union, which represents about 400,000 workers in the auto, aerospace and agriculture industries, announced on Tuesday that it had filed a federal labor lawsuit against Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The lawsuit follows what the UAW described as “an attempt to intimidate and threaten workers” during a conversation between Trump and Musk at X-Space on Monday night, in which Trump appeared to praise Musk, the owner of X-Space, for firing striking workers.
“Well, you’re the best firer,” Trump told Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. “I mean, I look at what you do, you come in and you just say, ‘You want to quit?’ They start a strike. I won’t say the names of the companies, but they start a strike and you say, ‘All right, you all quit. You all quit.'” Musk did not respond specifically to Trump’s remarks, but laughed while the former president spoke and said he would be “happy to work with” him on a government efficiency committee.
According to the National Labor Relations Board, American workers, union or not, cannot be fired for participating in a protected strike. William B. Gould IV, a professor at Stanford Law School and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, said Trump’s comments “clearly state a position that violates the law.” Gould said Trump is acting on behalf of Musk’s company, and his comments could influence the company’s vote to unionize.
The NLRB must investigate the allegations and determine how to proceed if it finds the charges are warranted.
“This is what we mean when we say Donald Trump is a strikebreaker. This is what we mean when we say Trump is against everything our union stands for,” UAW President Sean Fain said. statement“Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit back and shut up while they openly laugh at it. The behavior of these two clowns is disgusting, illegal and completely expected.”
The U.A.W. Approved The union has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and has previously called Trump a “billionaire scab and stooge.” The union did not provide WIRED with a copy of the complaint it filed on Tuesday in response to a request from the NLRB; at press time it had not yet been posted on the NLRB’s website.
Musk’s companies have a dirty record when it comes to labor rights. Trump did not name Musk’s companies, but Musk is CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company. Musk has said in the past that he would not unionize Tesla. Loss of stock optionsWhen he acquired X (then Twitter), he cut staff and eventually shut down the service. Janitor Who Went on strikeMeanwhile, SpaceX is currently Fighting the NLRB in Court.
The UAW previously tried to unionize Tesla workers but was unsuccessful. Still trying Tesla and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. The Trump campaign also did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after the UAW announced its complaint, Musk Post to X“The last two UAW presidents went to prison for bribery and corruption, and recent news suggests this guy will join them!” (Two former UAW presidents be sentenced to imprisonment They were part of a major corruption investigation, but not the two most recent union leaders.
