Elon Musk has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), after it denounced SpaceX, owned by the billionaire, for the dismissal of some employees. In the lawsuit, Musk directly attacked the NLRB, claiming that the body’s structure is not constitutional. In this way, if the businessman’s claims are confirmed, Musk could cause significant changes in the American labor system.
The NLRB is a government agency that ensures compliance with labor legislation, it has its own administrative system of judges and prosecutors. Musk is now filing an amendment against that structure in its entirety, responding to the complaint filed Wednesday by NLRB prosecutors against SpaceX. The organization accuses the aerospace company of illegally dismissing a group of eight employees in 2022 who had shared a critical letter against the billionaire.
In that letter, workers said that Musk was “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” and called on SpaceX leadership to distance itself from its owner and founder’s comments, while encouraging other employees to sign it. The company defends that the workers were fired because the letter “caused a significant distraction to SpaceX employees across the country.”
Separation of powers in danger
The owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) assures that the NLRB’s administrative system violates the separation of powers established in the Constitution. “The NLRB’s process against SpaceX deprives it of its constitutional right to a jury trial,” says the lawsuit, filed before a federal district judge in Brownsville (southern Texas).
Key dates
The NLRB has scheduled a hearing on the laid-off SpaceX workers with an NLRB administrative law judge for March 5. Any decision the judge makes can be appealed to the Board and taken to the Federal Court of Appeals.
