UAW files labor charges against Trump, Musk alleging intimidation of workers

The UAW says it has filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk, referring to them as disgraced billionaires and accusing them of illegally attempting to threaten and intimidate workers engaged in protected concerted activity.

The union said the two on Monday held a "rambling, disorganized conversation" following significant technical delays on X, the Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in front of more than 1 million listeners in which they advocated for the illegal firing of striking workers.

According to the UAW, Trump, the Republican nominee for president, told Musk, “I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you say, 'You want to quit?' They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, 'That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.' ”

The union, in a news release, noted 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.

Musk chuckled but did not respond to Trump's comments, making it harder for the NLRB to find him liable for making illegal threats to workers at his companies, Wilma Liebman, chair of the National Labor Relations Board under former President Barack Obama, told Reuters.

The UAW has long sought to organize nonunion Tesla, where Musk is CEO, and the union has endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in this year's presidential contest.

UAW President Shawn Fain blasted both Trump and Musk. Fain and Trump have traded jabs in their public comments on numerous occasions.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” Fain said in the release. “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a super PAC to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal and totally predictable from these two clowns.”

Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes called the charges a stunt.

“This frivolous lawsuit is a shameless political stunt intended to erode President Trump’s overwhelming support among America’s workers," according to the statement from Hughes. "Democrat special interest bosses may lie and stoke fear to try and stop President Trump from creating the broadest coalition of any candidate in history, but rank-and-file workers and their families know the truth. President Trump strengthened our economy and delivered results on behalf of the forgotten men and women of America, and he will do it again when he is re-elected on Nov. 5.”

Hughes also called out Harris for supporting the Biden administration's "job-crushing electric vehicle mandate." The administration's policies do support EV adoption, but it's not a formal mandate.

After the union's action on Tuesday, Musk criticized Fain in a social media post, alluding to two past union presidents who went to prison for bribery and corruption. "Based on recent news, it looks like this guy will join them!" Musk said.

A court-appointed monitor of the UAW is investigating several union executives, including allegations that Fain retaliated against a member of his board when the person did not take actions that would have benefited Fain's domestic partner and her sister.

NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Blado confirmed that the NLRB Region 5 office, which covers Washington, D.C., and Maryland, along with parts of Virginia and three other states, had received an unfair labor practice charge against Donald J. Trump for President Inc., located in Arlington, Virginia, and that one had been received against Tesla in Region 32-Oakland, which covers parts of California and Nevada.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.