The United Car The labor union, which represents about 400,000 workers in the auto, aerospace and agriculture industries, said Tuesday it has filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The charges follow what the UAW described as “attempts to threaten and intimidate workers” that occurred during a conversation between Trump and Musk hosted at X Spaces on Monday night, in which Trump appeared to praise X owner Musk for firing workers , who are on strike.
“Well, you’re the ultimate cutter,” Trump told Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. “I mean, I watch what you do. You go in and just say, “Do 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, ‘No problem. You are all gone. You all go away.”
According to the National Labor Relations Board, workers in the US – both unionized and non-unionized – cannot be fired for participating in protected strikes. In his comments, Trump “has taken a position that is a violation of the law, plain and simple,” says William B. Gould IV, a professor at Stanford Law School and former chairman of the NLRB. Trump could be seen as acting as an agent for Musk’s companies, Gould said, and his words could potentially interfere with unionization votes at the companies.
The NLRB will have to investigate the allegations and then decide how to proceed if it believes the allegations have merit.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, we mean it. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, we mean it,” UAW President Sean Fein said in a statement. “Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up, and they’re laughing at it openly.” This is disgusting, illegal and completely predictable from these two clowns.
