Elon Musk Loses Appeals Court Ruling On 2018 Union-Busting Tweet

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 2018 Twitter station by Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the nonaccomplishment of banal options if they decided to beryllium represented by a union, a national appeals tribunal ruled Friday.

The ruling by a three-judge sheet of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a March 2021 order by the National Labor Relations Board, which ordered that the tweet beryllium deleted. The lawsuit arose from United Auto Workers’ organizing efforts astatine a Tesla installation successful Fremont, California.

Also upheld was the board’s bid that Tesla reinstate and supply backmost wage to an worker who was fired for union-organizing activity.

Musk tweeted connected May 20, 2018: “Nothing stopping Tesla squad astatine our car works from voting union. Could bash truthful tmrw if they wanted. But wherefore wage national dues and springiness up banal options for nothing? Our information grounds is 2X amended than erstwhile works was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

The ruling said that “because banal options are portion of Tesla’s employees’ compensation, and thing successful the tweet suggested that Tesla would beryllium forced to extremity banal options oregon that the UAW would beryllium the origin of giving up banal options, important grounds supports the NLRB’s decision that the tweet is arsenic an implied menace to extremity banal options arsenic retaliation for unionization.”

The UAW, and Richard Ortiz, the idiosyncratic whose reinstatement was ordered, praised the ruling. “I look guardant to returning to enactment astatine Tesla and moving with my co-workers to decorativeness the occupation of forming a Union,” Ortiz said successful a UAW email.

“This a large triumph for workers who person the courageousness to basal up and signifier successful a strategy that is presently stacked heavy successful favour of employers similar Tesla who person nary qualms astir violating the law,” said UAW Region 6 Director Mike Miller.

Tesla had not responded to emailed requests for remark Friday afternoon.