The United Auto Workers union said Tuesday it has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk over efforts to threaten and intimidate workers.
It is unclear whether the NLRB will take action against Trump for comments he made during a two-hour conversation with Musk that was broadcast on the social media platform X on Monday.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2024
The UAW capitalized on Trump’s comments because the union is standing behind Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris and encouraging its nearly 400,000 workers to vote for her instead of Trump. The issue is particularly relevant in battleground states like Michigan, which could determine who wins the White House in November. The UAW endorsed Harris in late July.
“You’re the biggest cutter,” Trump told Musk during a conversation on Monday, praising the CEO’s ability to cut costs and saying he wouldn’t tolerate workers going on strike. “I mean, I see what you do. You go in, you just say: ‘Do you want to quit?’ They go on strike — I won’t name the company — but they go on strike. And you say: ‘Never mind, you all walk away.’”
Wilma Liebman, who served as NLRB chairwoman under former President Barack Obama, said Musk did not respond to Trump’s comments except by laughing, making it harder for the NLRB to hold him liable for making illegal threats to his companies’ employees.
The UAW said in a statement that under federal law, workers cannot be fired for going on strike, and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
Following the union action on Tuesday, Musk criticized UAW President Sean Fein in a social media post, referring to two former union presidents who were jailed for bribery and corruption. Musk added, “Based on recent news, it looks like this guy will be joining them!”
The UAW’s court-appointed monitor is investigating several union officials, including allegations that Fenn retaliated against a member of his board even though that person did not take any action that could have benefited Fenn’s domestic partner and her sister. The UAW could not immediately be reached for comment on Musk’s response.
Trump campaign officials said the 100% tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports would strengthen the industry, while Harris’s EV policies were hurting American manufacturing.
“This frivolous lawsuit is a shameless political stunt aimed at eroding President Trump’s overwhelming support among American workers,” Trump campaign senior adviser Bryan Hughes said in a statement.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the UAW’s action.
Fanon and Trump have had heated exchanges before.
“Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit back and laugh at this. It’s disgusting, illegal, and completely predictable coming from these two clowns,” Fein said in a statement Tuesday.
Trump demanded the firing of the union leader, saying he was responsible for the weakening of American auto manufacturing.
UAW members in Michigan tend to favor Democrats, but pro-Trump activists have held their own rallies in recent weeks.
In the 2020 presidential race, 62% of Michigan households with a union member voted for President Joe Biden, helping him win the state, according to Edison Research. In contrast, in 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost the state and national race by narrow margins, union households voted for Biden 53% to 40%.
Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, another major labor group, said of Trump’s comments, “Firing workers out of their jobs for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism.”
The Teamsters have traditionally endorsed a candidate after party conventions. O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
The union also sought an opportunity to speak at the upcoming Democratic National Convention but received no response, spokeswoman Kara Deniz said. It also invited Harris to a roundtable but did not hear back.
sending message
The NLRB has limited power to punish illegal labor practices and the process often lasts years. In cases involving illegal threats, the board may order employers to cease and desist such conduct and to post notices in the workplace informing workers of their rights. Unions can also use favorable NLRB rulings to include the workers they are trying to organize.
“Everybody knows the NLRB’s remedies are worthless from the start, but this is not meant to be a remedy but to send a political message and an organizing message,” Liebman, the former NLRB chief, said Tuesday, referring to the UAW’s action.
Fenn filed separate complaints with the NLRB against the Trump campaign and Tesla, citing Trump and Musk as representatives of employers, and claiming both had made statements saying they would “fire employees who engage in protected collective activity, including strikes.” The complaints provided no further details.
The NLRB has jurisdiction over the Trump campaign as an employer, but not over Trump himself.
The UAW led a six-week strike against Detroit’s three big automakers last fall, winning record-breaking contracts.
Musk and the NLRB
Musk, who supported Trump for president, has had several run-ins with the labor board. His rocket company SpaceX is currently challenging the agency’s entire structure in two pending lawsuits. The cases arise from NLRB complaints accusing SpaceX of firing engineers who criticized Musk and forcing employees to sign severance agreements with unlawful terms.
In March, a U.S. appeals court upheld an NLRB ruling that said Musk had illegally intimidated Tesla workers by tweeting in 2018: “Nothing is stopping the Tesla team at our car plant from voting for a union … but why pay union dues and give up stock options?”
Tesla is separately facing allegations from the board that it illegally discouraged union formation at its plant in Buffalo, New York.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
