Elon Musk’s America PAC and several other defendants, including the re-election campaign of Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., are accused of violating California labor law in a class action lawsuit filed in Orange County on Oct. 30, according to court documents obtained by WIRED.
The named plaintiffs, Tamiko Anderson and Patricia Kelly, were surveyors for Steel in October of this year, according to the lawsuit, which alleges they were not paid agreed-upon salaries. America PAC is named because it provided campaign services for Steel.
The plaintiffs are also suing for alleged failure to reimburse business expenses and for allegedly receiving inaccurate salary statements. The lawsuit seeks class certification for all current and former canvassers who were non-exempt employees of the Steel campaign from October 30, 2023 to the present.
These allegations are different from what WIRED reported earlier this week, when pollsters in Michigan said they were misled and threatened as part of Elon Musk and America PAC’s effort to get them to vote for Donald Trump. The door knockers, who worked for an America PAC subcontractor, were flown to Michigan, driven in the back of a U-Haul and told they would have to pay hotel bills unless they met unrealistic quotas. One was surprised to discover, upon arriving in Michigan, that they were working to elect Donald Trump.
The Blair Group, a North Carolina company that the complaint alleges is a political consultancy, and Liberty Staffing Servicesa Florida firm that specializes in the hiring and payroll of canvassers and other W2 political campaign employees, are the other named defendants. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit also names unknown Johns Doe as defendants.
The plaintiffs are owed money, according to the lawsuit.
“As with other class members, plaintiffs were guaranteed an agreed upon hourly wage (sic) upon beginning their employment. However, plaintiffs are informed and believe that defendants did not pay them the correct hourly wage and instead paid them based on the number of residences they investigated. To date, plaintiffs have yet to receive the underwages they are owed,” the complaint states.
Defendants in the lawsuit also did not receive reimbursement for downloading various apps on their personal devices, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs also allege that their cell phones were used to record time worked, but they were still not compensated for those hours.
America PAC, in which Musk has invested more than $100 million, has largely been involved in get-out-the-vote operations in key states for Donald Trump’s campaign. However, widespread reports describe its operations as a disaster; In addition to WIRED’s reporting on its efforts in Michigan, The Guardian has reported that up to 25 percent of the knocks on your doors may be fraudulent, and NBC has reported that campaign operatives are concerned about “suspicious data.” In an election that all polls show as a toss-up, a chaotic field operation could well mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Neither Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, nor a spokesperson for Musk-owned X immediately responded to requests for comment and requests to contact a representative for America PAC, which does not list contact information on its website. . Steel’s campaign also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for The Blair Group also did not respond to a request for comment.