The United Auto Workers union, which represents about 400,000 workers in the auto, aerospace and agricultural industries, announced Tuesday that it has filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The charges stem from what the UAW describes as “attempts to threaten and intimidate workers” that arose during a conversation between Trump and Musk, hosted at X Spaces on Monday night, in which Trump appeared to praise X owner Musk for firing workers who went on strike.
“Well, you’re the best cutter,” Trump told Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. “I mean, I see what you do. You come in and you say, ‘Do you want to quit?’ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘OK. They’re all gone. They’re all gone.’” Musk did not specifically respond to Trump’s remarks, but he laughed when the former president spoke and said he would “be happy to help” on a government efficiency commission.
According to the National Labor Relations Board, American workers, both unionized and nonunion, cannot be fired for participating in protected strikes. In his remarks, Trump “expressed a position that is a violation of the law, plain and simple,” says William B. Gould IV, a professor at Stanford Law School and former chairman of the NLRB. Trump could be seen as an agent of Musk’s companies, Gould says, and his words could potentially interfere with pro-union votes at companies.
The NLRB will have to investigate the allegations and then decide how to proceed if it finds the charges have merit.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump opposes everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. statement“Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they openly laugh about it. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”
The UAW has Approved Vice President Kamala Harris is running for president and has previously called Trump “a scab and a lapdog for billionaires.” The union did not provide a copy of the charges it filed Tuesday when asked by WIRED; they were not yet registered on the NLRB’s website at the time of publication.
Musk’s companies have a disappointing track record when it comes to workers’ rights. Trump did not mention which Musk company he was referring to, but Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. Musk has said in the past that unionization at Tesla would result in a loss of stock optionsand cut staff at X (then Twitter) when it bought it, and eventually even canceled Twitter services. goalkeepers WHO went on strikeMeanwhile, SpaceX is currently Showdown with the NLRB in court.
The UAW previously attempted to unionize Tesla workers but was unsuccessful. keep 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 the indictment, Musk published in X:“The last two UAW presidents went to prison for bribery and corruption, and from recent news, it looks like this guy is going to join them!” (Two former UAW presidents were Sentenced to prison in a major corruption investigation, but they were not the two most recent union presidents).
