Elon Musk dares autoworkers union: hold a vote at Tesla’s California factory

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Musk invited the UAW to hold a vote to unionize at the factory.

President Joe Biden mentioned Ford and General GM in his State of the Union Address, both of which have a strong union presence, but not Musk.

Gene Simmons, bassist and singer from legendary rock band Kiss, said on his website that the snub from pro-union Biden may have been due to the fact that Texas is a right to work state.

I would like to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Musk says that because the Bay Area has a competitive labor market, he has to compensate our people well.

Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!



I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022

In the past, Musk and other executives have been found guilty of scuttling union efforts. A California judge found the company guilty of a number of illegal anti-union tactics. At the time, it was reported.

The administrative judge, Amita Tracy, pointed to 12 company actions that violated US labor laws. That includes letting security guards harass workers who were passing out union pamphlets in the parking lot, banning employees from wearing pro-union T-shirts and buttons, repeatedly interrogating union organizers, and eventually firing one of them.

One worker told The Guardian thatElon Musk is neutral towards the union. They have been anything but neutral. The National Labor Relations Board found that Musk's statements constituted threats to unionizing workers and ordered him to remove them from his account. The order is currently being appealed.