On Tuesday, August 13th, the United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk for threatening to intimidate workers who go on strike following a long and meandering online conversation hosted between the two men on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. During the call, a particularly horrible series of comments were made about striking workers, with Trump praising Musk for firing
“They go on strike – I won’t mention the name of the company – but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. Every one of you is gone,” Trump said. Elon could be heard laughing and saying “yeah” repeatedly.
The charges filed by the UAW claim that Trump and Musk had “interfered with, restrained or coerced employees” who were exercising their right to organize against the company, with Musk “suggesting he would fire employees engaged in protected concerted activity, including striking.”
“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,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “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.”
“They thumb their nose at labor law and there has got to come a reckoning in this country where the billionaires and the corporate class and employers are held accountable when they break the law,” Fain said on “The Source.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement on Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s anti-worker comments:
“Last night, Donald Trump yet again made it crystal clear exactly who he is: a scab who will go to any lengths to crush working people.
“Greedy bosses aren’t just laughing at workers in smoke-filled backrooms anymore. They’re broadcasting it for the world to hear. It’s no surprise coming from Trump and Elon Musk—two notorious union-busters who boast a combined record of crossing picket lines, underpaying workers, flouting health and safety laws, and retaliating against workers for demanding the rights and fair pay we deserve, with Musk even suing the National Labor Relations Board rather than being held accountable for charges he illegally fired workers. This special breed of arrogant and weird billionaire CEOs just want an America where they can get even richer at workers’ expense. No matter what script Trump reads, working people know that he doesn’t care about us and he has no intention of fighting for us. Trump only cares about his Project 2025 Agenda that favors his ultra-wealthy buddies like Musk while stomping on the fundamental freedoms of everyone else.
“We applaud our union brothers, sisters and siblings at the UAW for filing federal labor charges against Trump and Musk for threatening and intimidating workers with the NLRB. That was illegal union-busting in real time, and they should be held accountable.”
Last week, the AFL-CIO released our 2024 Executive Paywatch report, which found that the average S&P 500 CEO received 268 times what their average median worker earned last year. Elon Musk is the world’s richest CEO, and in 2024, Tesla’s shareholders voted to re-approve Musk’s $56 billion pay plan—the largest ever received by a CEO—which a Delaware court had struck down. Musk responded to the court decision on his pay package by reincorporating Tesla from Delaware to Texas.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
