Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

has commented negatively on

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and has clashed with workers at companies he owns including

Tesla Tesla most commonly refers to: * Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), a Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor * Tesla, Inc., an American electric vehicle and clean energy company, formerly Tesla Motors, Inc. * Tesla (unit) (symbol: T), the SI-d ...

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, and X Corp. (formerly

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

). In 2025, Musk was appointed by president Trump to head the

Department of Government Efficiency The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government of the United States. Its stated objective is to modernize information technology, maximize productivity, and cut ...

, which was opposed by several trade unions. In 2023, Musk commented that he disagreed with "the idea of unions", describing it as a "lords and peasants" scenario.

Investigations and lawsuits

The

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...

(NLRB) had 24 open investigations into Musk's companies

, and X Corp. (formerly

) . These include alleged surveillance of Twitter employees during Musk's acquisition of Twitter and interference with union organizing at Tesla. The

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

was investigating

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...

at SpaceX. In 2024, SpaceX countersued the NLRB in response to the NLRB's investigation into alleged retaliation against employees who spoke out critically. In the first month of Donald Trump's second presidency, Trump fired top board members at several labor agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, the

and the

Federal Labor Relations Authority The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) is an independent agency of the United States government that governs labor relations between the federal government and its employees. Created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, it is a qua ...

, denying these independent agencies the quorum needed to make board decisions. A coalition of US labor unions sued to limit the access of the

(led by Elon Musk) to sensitive data in various government agencies. The

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

launched a campaign called the Department of People Who Work for a Living, a reference to DOGE. Two labor unions representing government employees,

American Federation of Government Employees The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is an American labor union representing over 750,000 employees of the federal government, about 5,000 employees of the District of Columbia, and a few hundred private sector employees, mostly ...

, the

Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing 2 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of m ...

, and the

Alliance for Retired Americans The Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization and nonpartisan organization of retired trade union members affiliated with the AFL-CIO, which founded it in 2001. The group's membership also includes non-union, ...

, a non-profit representing retired union members, sued the Treasury Department on February 3, for sharing financial information with DOGE, as violations of the Privacy Act and the

Internal Revenue Code The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC), is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States. It is codified in statute as Title 26 of the United States Code. The IRC is organized topically into subtitles and sections, co ...

. The

sued the

Department of Labor A ministry of labour (''British English, UK''), or labor (''American English, US''), also known as a department of labour, or labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workfor ...

on February 5, to prevent DOGE from accessing its internal IT system, a request that was declined by US District Judge John Bates two days later, because the AFL-CIO failed to show actual harm from the Department of Labor. The

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 pe ...

, and three more unions, the

National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) is a US-based nonprofit, 501(c)5 membership association dedicated to preserving, protecting, and improving the pay and benefits of active and retired federal employees, their f ...

, the

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is an AFL–CIO/ CLC trade union representing over 600,000 workers as of 2024 in more than 200 industries with most of its membership in the United States and Canada. Orig ...

, and the

National Federation of Federal Employees The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) is an American labor union which represents about 100,000 public employees in the federal government. NFFE has about 200 local unions, most of them agency-wide bargaining units. Its members wo ...

sued three government agencies on February 10, for allegedly sharing data with the DOGE, including the Treasury Department for sharing tax refunds and

social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

information, the

Office of Personnel Management The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the United States government that manages the United States federal civil service. The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight, and support, a ...

(the federal government's HR system) for providing job applicant and federal employee data, and the Education Department for providing database of

student loans A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest ...

Tesla

Tesla has had labor disputes in the United States, Germany and Sweden, including an ongoing

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

in Sweden.

Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from h ...

, an American

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

and

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

manufacturer, has more than 140,000 workers employed across its global operations as of January 2024. Tesla CEO

has expressed his opposition to unions on

(now called X). The

held that one tweet was unlawful, but was overturned by a federal appeals court. All

unionization Unionization is the creation and growth of modern trade unions. Trade unions were often seen as a Left-wing politics, left-wing, Socialism, socialist concept, whose popularity has increased during the 19th century when a rise in industrial capit ...

efforts at the

Tesla Fremont Factory The Tesla Fremont Factory is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, United States, operated by Tesla, Inc. The factory originally opened as General Motors' Fremont Assembly in 1962, and then was operated by New United Motor ...

and

Gigafactory New York Gigafactory New York (also known as Giga New York or Gigafactory 2) is factory leased by Tesla, Inc. in the Riverbend section of Buffalo, New York. The factory, owned by the State of New York, was built on brownfield land remediated from a form ...

in the United States have been unsuccessful. In Germany,

Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg (also known as Giga Berlin or Gigafactory 4) is a manufacturing plant for Tesla, Inc. in the municipality of Grünheide (Mark) in Brandenburg, Germany. The campus is located southeast of central Berlin and some ...

and

Tesla Automation Tesla Automation GmbH (formerly Grohmann Engineering GmbH) is a German engineering automation company based in Prüm in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The company operates a development center in Neutraubling, Bavaria, as well as support o ...

have elected

works councils A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

, but they have not signed

collective bargaining agreements Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...

with the German trade union

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: , "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider i ...

. The Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg works council is divided into pro-union and anti-union factions. In Sweden, mechanics who are members of the trade union

IF Metall Industrifacket Metall (IF Metall) is a trade union in Sweden. It was formed in a 2006 merger between the Swedish Industrial Union (Industrifacket) and the Swedish Metalworkers' Union (Metall). Its roots in Metall trace back to 1888. IF Metall ...

have been on strike since October 27, 2023, making it the longest strike in Sweden since 1938. The strike has since spread, with other Swedish, Danish and Norwegian unions calling for solidarity strikes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musk and unions Unions Anti-union sentiment Department of Government Efficiency Second Trump administration controversies