UAW files labor charges against Trump and Musk, alleging worker intimidation

The United Auto Workers (UAW) said Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges alleging former President Trump and Elon Musk attempted to “intimidate and threaten” workers during their Monday evening interview on the social platform X.

“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.’”

Federal law protects workers who go on strike from being fired, and it is illegal to threaten to do so, the UAW argued.

“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,” UAW President Shawn Fain said.

Trump has sparred publicly with Fain and the UAW, which endorsed Vice President Harris last month for the upcoming presidential election.

Following allegations of unfair labor practices, Musk’s SpaceX has directly challenged the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board in a move experts warned could hobble the agency charged with investigating allegations brought by employees, unions and employers.

“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,” Fain said.

“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 AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor unions, posted its own criticism of the conversation on X, saying, “Scab recognize scab.”

Neither the Trump campaign nor a spokesperson for X, which is owned by Musk, immediately responded to requests for comment.

The UAW has been highly critical of Trump and sought to draw a sharp contrast between the former president and Harris, arguing the vice president would deliver better results for unions than Trump.

“The record is clear. Donald Trump is all talk, but Kamala Harris has delivered for autoworkers,” Fain said in a video posted Monday by the UAW.

Following the video’s release, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Fain “a puppet for the Democrat Party who is sadly not serving the millions of hardworking union laborers across the country who are supporting President Trump because they know he will protect their jobs and put them first.”

The Trump team has been competing to court labor unions ahead of the November election, inviting Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention last month. The Teamsters have not yet endorsed a presidential candidate.