Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, DC, the United States, on March 9, 2020.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | fake images
Tesla is asking an appeals court to overturn a federal agency’s order that a Twitter post discouraging union organizing be removed from CEO Elon Musk’s account.
The National Labor Relations Board found that a May 2018 tweet from Musk illegally threatened employees with the loss of stock options if they chose to be represented by a union. The board ordered the post to be removed.
Among other things, the lengthy March 25 board ruling also orders Tesla to reinstate an employee who was fired for union organizing activities and return back wages. The ruling also says that Tesla must post a notice addressing unfair labor practices at the Fremont, California plant, where the United Auto Workers had been trying to organize 10,000 workers.
Tesla’s appeal was filed Friday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
Musk tweeted on May 20, 2018: “Nothing is stopping the Tesla team at our auto plant from voting in the union. Tmrw could if they wanted to. But why pay union dues and give up options on Shares for nothing? Our safety record is 2 times better than when the plant was UAW and everyone already receives medical attention. “