Court: 2018 Musk tweet unlawfully threatened UAW efforts
Associated PressNEW ORLEANS — A 2018 Twitter post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the loss of stock options if they decided to be represented by a union, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Musk tweeted on May 20, 2018: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.” The ruling said that “because stock options are part of Tesla’s employees’ compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of giving up stock options, substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization.” The UAW, and Richard Ortiz, the worker whose reinstatement was ordered, praised the ruling. “This a great victory for workers who have the courage to stand up and organize in a system that is currently stacked heavily in favor of employers like Tesla who have no qualms about violating the law,” said UAW Region 6 Director Mike Miller.