Elon Musk — the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, formerly Twitter —speaks in the course of the Recent York Times annual DealBook summit in Recent York City, Nov. 29, 2023.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has filed a criticism against SpaceX, alleging that Elon Musk’s defense contractor illegally fired eight employees after they wrote an open letter critical of Musk — and accused the workplace of being selectively permissive of sexual harassment.
CNBC obtained a replica of the NLRB criticism via a Freedom of Information Act request. The criticism says the eight employees of SpaceX “engaged in concerted activities with other employees for the needs of mutual aid or protection by drafting and distributing an open letter” detailing their workplace concerns.
Of their open letter, the SpaceX employees at the moment wrote that Musk’s “behavior in the general public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us.” They wrote that his divisive posts on social media, in addition to alleged sexual misconduct on his part, went against SpaceX’s own “no assholes” and “zero tolerance” policies.
The workers’ open letter was posted internally at SpaceX, after Business Insider reported that Musk had propositioned and exposed himself to a flight attendant on one in all the corporate’s private jets in 2016, resulting in a sexual harassment claim against the CEO, which SpaceX reportedly settled for $250,000 in 2018.
Musk has denied the sexual misconduct allegations, calling them “wild accusations.” After the report by Business Insider, SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell also defended Musk against allegations of sexual harassment.
After the then-SpaceX employees penned the open letter, the NLRB found that company management engaged in “interrogation” of the authors and “made coercive statements” to them, including “inviting” the staff to “quit in the event that they disagreed with the behavior of Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.” Eventually, the NLRB criticism says, SpaceX illegally fired those employees over the protected speech.
Musk bills himself as a free speech advocate or absolutist. Nevertheless, as CNBC has previously reported, his firms have repeatedly sought to stifle others’ speech when it has been critical of Musk or his businesses. For instance, under Musk’s ownership, the social network formerly generally known as Twitter (now X) has suspended accounts of users sharing records or remarks critical of Musk or his firms, including software developer Travis Brown, and Aaron Greenspan, founding father of PlainSite, a web-based database of legal and public records.
Laurie Burgess, an attorney representing the SpaceX employees who were fired after publishing their open letter, told CNBC her clients have also filed a proper criticism with the California Civil Rights Department alleging “failure to correct sexual harassment at SpaceX.”
SpaceX has significant operations and headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX didn’t reply to requests for comment, and the CRD didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the NLRB told CNBC via email on Wednesday that the labor agency’s Los Angeles regional director issued the consolidated criticism against SpaceX on Wednesday, after investigating ex-employees’ allegations.
That NLRB regional office will now seek a settlement between SpaceX and the ex-employees who were dismissed after speaking out. In the event that they don’t settle, they’ll proceed to a hearing before an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) starting on March 5, 2024 in Los Angeles. Such a judge’s decision isn’t necessarily final and might be appealed to the board of the NLRB and federal appeals court.
Read the total criticism from the federal agency here:
