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Elon Musk Unlawfully Threatened Workers for Union Activity: Appeals Court

The case arose from Musk’s May 2018 comments implying organized employees would lose stock options following a unionization push.

A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Friday that Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees for conducting union activity in 2018. In addition, the court upheld an order for Tesla to reinstate and back-pay an employee fired for organizing. The case arose from Musk’s May 2018 comments implying organized employees would lose stock options following a push for unionization at a Tesla plant in Fremont, California: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare,” he tweeted at the time.