U.S. regulators ordered Tesla honcho Elon Musk to delete a 2018 tweet that said Tesla workers would lose their stock options if they voted to unionize, calling the tweet an illegal threat.
According to the National Labor Relations Board, Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union activist and when Musk tweeted: “Nothing prevents the Tesla team at our car factory from voting for the union. You could do that tmrw if you wanted. But why pay union fees and give up stock options for nothing? “
Last Thursday, the federal agency ordered the CEO to delete his tweet and offer a job back to the dismissed employee, Richard Ortiz. The company must also compensate Ortiz for lost wages, benefits and adverse tax consequences that resulted from his dismissal, according to the regulator.
The board also instructed Tesla to publish notices across the country and to hold meetings at its main US auto plant in Fremont, California, to inform workers about their protected rights. At the meeting, Musk himself or a “board agent” in Musk’s presence, should read this notice to workers, along with security guards, managers and supervisors.
United Auto Workers, which filed the lawsuit, confirmed the news. Tesla did not return requests for comment.
Ortiz was part of an organizing campaign, “Fair Future at Tesla”. At the time, Tesla said its business should remain without unions. Musk’s public comments on his Twitter account, where he has tens of millions of followers, were seen as threatening.
Tesla considers Musk’s tweets to be official communications from the company, as disclosed in its financial reports. The CEO’s vocal tweets tend to have a big impact, often generating controversy and moving markets.
“While we celebrate justice in today’s decision, it highlights the substantial shortcomings in the United States’ labor legislation. This is a company that has clearly broken the law, but it still takes three years for these workers to achieve a minimum of justice, ”said UAW Vice President and Director of UAW Organizing Department, Cindy Estrada.
The NLRB also instructed Tesla to revise a confidentiality agreement it offers employees, which stated that they were not allowed to speak to the media without explicit written permission. The NLRB said the agreement must be updated, as US labor law generally “protects employees when they speak to the media about working conditions, labor disputes or other terms and conditions of employment”.