March 31 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court docket stated on Friday Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk violated federal labor regulation by tweeting that staff of the electrical automobile maker would lose inventory choices in the event that they joined a union.
The New Orleans-based fifth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals upheld a call by the U.S. Nationwide Labor Relations Board that stated the 2018 tweet amounted to an illegal menace that would discourage unionizing and ordered Musk to delete it.
Amid an organizing marketing campaign at Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant by the United Auto Staff (UAW) union, Musk tweeted: “Nothing stopping Tesla staff at our automotive plant from voting union … However why pay union dues & hand over inventory choices for nothing?”
Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
UAW President Shawn Fain applauded the choice in a press release however stated it additionally highlights “our damaged US labor regulation.”
“Here’s a firm that clearly broke the regulation and but it’s a number of years down the highway earlier than these staff have achieved a modicum of justice,” Fain stated.
Musk’s prolific use of Twitter has landed him in authorized hassle earlier than. Tesla in February defeated a lawsuit from traders over one other Musk tweet from 2018 saying funding was secured to take the corporate personal, and a British cave explorer unsuccessfully sued Musk for calling him a “pedo man” on Twitter.
Musk bought Twitter final 12 months for $44 billion.
In Friday’s case, Tesla had argued that the tweet about unionizing was not a menace and merely mirrored the truth that union staff at different auto corporations didn’t obtain inventory choices.
However a three-judge panel of the fifth Circuit disagreed.
“Substantial proof helps the NLRB’s conclusion that the tweet is an implied menace to finish inventory choices as retaliation for unionization,” the fifth Circuit panel wrote.
The labor board in a separate case final 12 months stated Tesla violated labor regulation by prohibiting staff on the Fremont plant from carrying shirts supporting the union marketing campaign. The corporate is interesting that call.
Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Enhancing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Matthew Lewis and Muralikumar Anantharaman
: .
