US labor board wrongfully ordered Tesla's Musk to delete anti-union tweet, court rules Reuters
Written by Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A separate U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that the National Labor Relations Board erred in ordering Tesla (NASDAQ: ) CEO Elon Musk to remove a 2018 tweet that said workers at the electric car maker would lose stock options if they unionized. .
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans by a vote of 9-8 overturned the NLRB's 2021 order that found the tweet to be an illegal threat after the court ruled that the tweet constituted free speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -US. Amendment.
“Removing the speech of private citizens on topics of public concern is not a remedy traditionally viewed as American law,” the court concluded in an unsigned opinion joined by eight of the nine justices.
That finding is enough to warrant a reversal of the 2021 NLRB decision, according to those judges, all of whom are appointed by Republican presidents. As a result, it did not determine that the tweet itself violated the National Labor Relations Act.
The court also ordered the NLRB to review its decision ordering Tesla to reinstate the pro-union worker who was fired. US District Judge James Dennis, in a dissenting opinion joined by seven other justices, including all of the court's Democratic nominees, called the decision “light on the law and the facts.”
Representatives for Tesla and the NLRB did not respond to requests for comment.
The case precedes Musk's purchase of Twitter, now known as X, in 2022 for $44 billion, a platform the world's richest man has long used.
During an organizing drive at Tesla's Fremont, California, plant for the United Auto Workers union, Musk tweeted: “There is nothing stopping the Tesla team at our auto plant from unionizing…
Tesla said the tweet was not a threat and merely reflected the fact that unionized workers at other auto companies did not receive stock options. A three-judge 5th Circuit panel dissented in March 2023, but the full appeals court chose to rehear the case.
Musk's rocket company SpaceX is suing the NLRB separately, saying its internal enforcement actions are unconstitutional.
