The United Auto Employees union on Tuesday filed federal labor prices with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board in opposition to former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for publicly applauding the observe of firing staff who threaten to strike.

“I take a look at what you do,” Trump mentioned to Musk throughout a two-hour interview Monday night time on X, the social media platform Musk owns.

“You stroll in, you say, ‘You wish to give up?’ They go on strike,” Trump mentioned to Musk, who is also CEO of the EV automobile maker Tesla and of SpaceX.

“I will not point out the title of the corporate, however they go on strike and also you say, ‘That is okay, you are all gone. You are all gone. So, each one in all you is gone,'” Trump mentioned.

Trump was referring to the 2022 gutting of Twitter employees after Musk took over the social media enterprise and renamed it X.

It’s unlawful to fireplace staff who threaten to strike, as a result of the fitting to strike is protected beneath federal labor legislation.

“Once we say Donald Trump is a scab, that is what we imply,” UAW President Shawn Fain mentioned in an announcement Tuesday on the brand new prices. “Once we say Trump stands in opposition to every thing our union stands for, that is what we imply.”

Neither the Trump marketing campaign nor Musk replied to CNBC’s request for touch upon the UAW motion.

Trump’s reward of union busting is notable as a result of the Republican presidential nominee is presently preventing to win assist from organized labor in a good race in opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The UAW, which represents greater than 400,000 autoworkers, has already endorsed Harris. However one other main U.S. labor union, the Teamsters, has but to make an endorsement.

A spokesman for the Teamsters didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Trump’s assist for union busting.

In July, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien delivered a speech on the Republican Nationwide Conference.

He mentioned his attendance was supposed to underscore that the union’s highly effective political endorsement was nonetheless out there to whichever candidate pledges to champion staff’ pursuits.

“Corporations hearth staff who attempt to be a part of unions, and conceal behind toothless legal guidelines that should defend working folks however are manipulated to learn companies,” O’Brien mentioned on the RNC in Milwaukee.

“That is financial terrorism at its greatest,” mentioned O’Brien.

Musk is not any stranger to labor battles. Tesla has clashed with union proponents for years, and Tesla staff stay with no union.

In 2021, the NLRB discovered that Tesla violated labor legal guidelines when it fired a union activist.

The board had made the identical discovering after Musk wrote on Twitter in 2018, “Nothing stopping Tesla staff at our automobile plant from voting union. Might achieve this tmrw in the event that they wished. However why pay union dues & hand over inventory choices for nothing?”

SpaceX has additionally been accused by the U.S. labor board of illegally firing eight staff, this time in retaliation over their inner, open letter criticizing Musk and his public conduct.

In response, SpaceX filed a go well with claiming the NLRB’s authority and administrative proceedings are unconstitutional.

This can be a creating story. Please examine again for updates.