The Twitter wars continue for Elon Musk, as the world’s richest man entangled himself this week in a surreal Twitter thread featuring Kiss co-lead singer Gene Simmons.
The exchange started after Musk replied to a tweet from President Biden’s account on March 1, which touted the contributions of Tesla’s competitors but left the electric carmaker out.
Musk has repeatedly complained that the administration has overlooked Tesla’s work, including by excluding him from a car exec meet-up at the White House.
Simmons complimented the Tesla team as “game changers” but speculated that they were omitted from Biden’s shoutout because “Tesla is non-union and moved to Texas.”
“Actually,” Musk retorted, “we still operate our California factory, which is the largest auto plant in North America.” He went on to boast of Tesla’s competitive compensation packages, which he claimed are the highest in the industry.
“I’d like hereby to invite [United Auto Workers] to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.”
In recent months, the carmaker’s plant in Fremont, California, has faced wave after wave of bad press.
One former worker, Owen Diaz, was awarded an enormous $137 million judgment in October after a jury found that he experienced racist treatment from his supervisors.
“The jury knew that this is not just for me; this verdict is for everybody that works at Tesla. This is their way of putting Elon Musk on notice,” he told The Daily Beast at the time.
Soon after, another former worker sued the company, claiming she suffered from PTSD as a result of mistreatment at the factory.
The employee, Jessica Barraza, said the plant had the culture of a “frat house” and that coworkers would make suggestive comments about her appearance and rub against her body.
Then, this year, California regulators sued Tesla over allegations of harassment and discrimination.
The head of the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing said it had received hundreds of complaints from workers and ultimately concluded that “Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion.”
Tesla published a blog calling the lawsuit “misguided,” saying the company had “recently rolled out an additional training program that reinforces Tesla’s requirement that all employees must treat each other with respect.”
Whatever becomes of the case, the scrutiny is unlikely to abate.