The United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) union has taken umbrage at divisive comments made by Donald Trump during his high-profile two-hour discussion with Elon Musk on the latter’s social media platform X.
During the discussion, which was listened to live by over one million X users, Republican presidential nominee Trump praised Musk’s stance on dissenting workers.
“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”
Musk avoided directly replying to the comments.
The UAW said it has filed federal labor charges against the two “for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes”.
The union pointed out that under federal law, workers cannot be fired for going on strike and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
The chat between the two billionaires on Monday spanned themes including immigration, Obama, the recent assassination attempt on Trump and climate change.
Despite the convivial discussion, Musk and Trump have previously butted heads.
In 2022, Tesla boss Musk said it was “time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
In response, Trump wrote on his rival social media platform truth Social: “When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” the 45th commander-in-chief claimed.
“Now Elon should focus on getting himself out of the Twitter mess because he could owe $44 billion for something that’s perhaps worthless.”