The United Auto Workers union, which represents some 400,000 workers in the automotive, aerospace and agriculture industries, said Tuesday it has filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The charges follow what the UAW describes as “attempts to threaten and intimidate workers” that arose during a conversation between Trump and Musk hosted on X Spaces 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 look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, 'Do you want to stop?' They go on strike. I won't name the company, but they go on strike and you say, 'That's OK. Y'all out. Y'all out.'” Musk didn't specifically respond to Trump's comments, but laughed as the former president spoke and said he would “love to help” with a government efficiency commission.
American workers, both union and nonunion, cannot be fired for participating in protected strikes, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled. In his remarks, Trump “established a position that is a violation of the law, plain and simple,” said William B. Gould IV, a professor at Stanford Law School and former chairman of the NLRB. Trump could be seen as an agent for Musk’s companies, Gould said, and his words could potentially undermine sentiment among companies to unionize.
The NLRB will have to investigate the claims and then decide how to proceed if the NLRB finds the allegations to be valid.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scumbag, this is what we mean. When we say Trump is against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they're openly laughing about it. It's disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”
The UAW has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and has previously called Trump “a thug and a lapdog for billionaires.” The union did not provide copies of the charges it filed Tuesday when WIRED requested them; they were not yet registered on the NLRB’s website at the time of writing.
Musk’s companies have a poor track record when it comes to workers’ rights. Trump didn’t name the Musk company he was referring to, but Musk is CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and the Boring Company. Musk has said in the past that unionizing Tesla would result in a loss of stock options, and he cut staff at X (then Twitter) when he bought it, eventually cutting shifts for janitors who went on strike. Meanwhile, SpaceX is currently battling the NLRB in court.
The UAW previously attempted to unionize Tesla workers, but failed. The union is still trying. Tesla and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. Trump’s campaign also did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after the UAW announced the charges, Musk posted a message on X: “The last two UAW presidents went to prison for bribery and corruption and based on recent news it looks like this guy is going to join them!” (Two former UAW presidents were sentenced to prison terms in a major corruption investigation, but they were not the two most recent union presidents.)
