Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s 2018 Twitter post unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the loss of stock options if they chose to be represented by a union, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The judgment by a three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a March 2021 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, which ordered that the tweet be deleted. The case stemmed from United Auto Workers’ organizing actions at a Tesla facility in Fremont, California. Also upheld was the board’s order that Tesla brings back and provide back pay to an employee who was fired for union-organizing activity.
Musk tweeted on May 20, 2018: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? 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’ wages, and nothing in the tweet indicated that Tesla would be pushed to end stock options or that the UAW would be the reason for 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. Ortiz said in a UAW email, I look forward to returning to work at Tesla and working with my co-workers to finish the job of forming a Union.
UAW Region 6 Director Mike Miller said, 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.
Tesla had not responded or replied to emailed requests for comment Friday afternoon.
