SpaceX faces legal action for sacking workers who slammed Musk

SpaceX, the brainchild rocket company of billionaire Elon Musk, is facing legal action from the US labor board for who criticized Musk’s social media posts. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint on Wednesday, claiming that SpaceX violated the workers’ rights by terminating them in 2022 for writing an open letter to the company’s leadership.

The letter urged SpaceX to distance itself from Musk’s tweets, some of which made light of sexual harassment allegations against him. The workers said that Musk’s online behavior was inconsistent with the company’s values of diversity and respect and demanded that SpaceX denounce his remarks. As reports, The NLRB also accused SpaceX of interrogating, disparaging, and threatening the workers involved in the letter and preventing them from sharing it with others.

The complaint named SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, and other executives and managers responsible for the unlawful actions. The case will be trialed in March unless SpaceX agrees to settle it. The NLRB seeks remedies such as reinstatement and back pay for the fired workers.

A report quoted one of the workers, Paige Holland Thielen, who said that SpaceX treated its employees as disposable despite its mission of reusable rockets. “I hope these charges will make SpaceX and its leadership accountable for their long history of abusing workers and silencing dissent,” she said.

This is not the first time Musk has faced backlash from his employees. In 2022, he bought Twitter, renamed it X, and laid off half its staff. He later fired about two dozen workers who opposed his vision for the social media platform. X has lost about 80 percent of its 7,500 employees since Musk took over.

Tesla, another company led by Musk, has been in a legal battle with the NLRB for years over a case of firing a worker for union activity. The NLRB ruled in 2021 that Tesla broke the law and ordered it to reinstate the worker with back pay. Tesla is appealing the decision. The Justice Department is also suing SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring process.

However, a judge has put that case on hold. Another fired worker, Deborah Lawrence, said that had a “toxic culture” where harassment was tolerated, especially against women. “We wrote the open letter to leadership not out of malice, but because we cared about the mission and the people around us,” she said.

The NLRB’s general counsel acts as a prosecutor and brings cases to the board, which consists of five members appointed by the president. If SpaceX does not settle, the case will be heard by an administrative judge, whose ruling can be appealed to the board and then to a federal court. A hearing is scheduled for March 5.

The NLRB can order that workers be reinstated and paid back if it finds that firings violated labor law. SpaceX could also face higher penalties in future cases if it is found to have violated the law. The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits against Musk’s companies for infringing on employees’ rights under labor and employment laws..