The United Auto Workers union said it has filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk after a conversation the two had on Monday evening.
The union alleges that Trump and Musk illegally attempted to threaten and intimidate workers who engaged in "protected concerted activity, such as strikes."
Trump and Musk had a wide-ranging conversation on X that the union called "rambling" and "disorganized."
During the conversation, the union said Trump told Musk," I mean, I look at what you do. 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.”
Since the union's historic Stand Up Strike last year, UAW President Shawn Fain has planned to expand the union to many plants across the country, including plants run by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, along with factories operated by electric-vehicle makers Tesla, Rivian and Lucid.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” Fain said in a statement. “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”
The union has thrown its support behind Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the presidential race.
Harris met with UAW members in Michigan last week.
The Trump campaign released a statement later Tuesday, calling the UAW's move a political stunt.
“This frivolous lawsuit is a shameless political stunt intended to erode President Trump’s overwhelming support among America’s workers. While Kamala Harris pushes a job-crushing electric vehicle mandate that is crippling our manufacturing industry, raising costs, and sending even more jobs to China, President Trump has pledged to slap a 100 percent tariff on Chinese imports to make sure that the future of the auto industry will be made in America. Democrat special interest bosses may lie and stoke fear to try and stop President Trump from creating the broadest coalition of any candidate in history, but rank-and-file workers and their families know the truth. President Trump strengthened our economy and delivered results on behalf of the forgotten men and women of America, and he will do it again when he is re-elected on November 5,” Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement.
