Musk’s 2018 tweet on employee unions broke federal law, rules US court

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The United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Tesla and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, broke federal law with a 2018 tweet about employee stock options if they unionise.

As reported by Business Insider, Musk's tweet was in response to a user, who asked him about his views on employee unions.

Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018

In the tweet, Musk said that nothing is stopping the Tesla employees from forming a union but they would be giving up stock options if they did so.

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The United Auto Workers made the charge against Musk after the Tesla staff had unsuccessfully tried to unionise at the company's Fremont offices in California, US.

Tesla’s lawyers argued that Musk’s statement, “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union,” has been falsely viewed as a threat.

The 5th Circuit in a statement said that “stock options are part of Tesla’s employees’ compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of 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.”

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The court has also ordered Musk to delete the tweet in question and ordered Tesla to reinstate Richard Ortiz, a former Tesla worker, who had been fired after he organised a union drive. Tesla has also been ordered to backpay Ortiz for his unlawful dismissal.