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UAW HITS TRUMP, MUSK WITH FEDERAL LABOR CHARGES OVER EFFORT TO
‘INTIMIDATE WORKERS’  
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Jake Johnson
August 13, 2024
Common Dreams
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_ "When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean," said
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. _

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain speaks at a rally in
Romulus, Michigan on August 7, 2024., Dewey/Anadolu via Getty Images

 

The United Auto Workers announced
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Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges against Republican
presidential nominee Donald Trump
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Musk after the former president heaped praise on the world's richest
man for firing striking workers.

During a rambling and lie-filled
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conversation on X—the social media platform owned by Musk—Trump
hailed the Tesla CEO as "the greatest cutter."

"I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say: 'You want
to quit?' They go on strike—I won't mention the name of the
company—but they go on strike," Trump said as Musk—who is backing
the GOP nominee
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"And you say: 'That's okay, you're all gone.'"

The UAW argued Tuesday that Trump and Musk's remarks during the
conversation, which was viewed live by more than a million people,
amounted to "illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who
stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity,
such as strikes."

"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."

"Under federal law, workers cannot be fired for going on strike, and
threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations
Act," the union said.

Listen to Trump's comments:

Trump praises billionaire Elon Musk for firing workers who were
striking for better pay and working conditions
pic.twitter.com/4ZGWHV49Mw [[link removed]]
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 13, 2024
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Shawn Fain, the UAW's president, said in a statement Tuesday that
"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 added. "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."

Shortly after taking over the social media platform formerly known as
Twitter in 2022, Musk terminated unionized custodial workers at the
company's San Francisco headquarters on the same day
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that they launched an Unfair Labor Practice strike. Months later,
Musk-led Tesla fired dozens of workers
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at its Buffalo, New York factory just a day after they announced plans
to unionize.

Musk, like Trump
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has a long history of hostility
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toward labor unions, both in the U.S. and overseas
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similarity that the pair bonded over
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during the X conversation Monday night.

"Scab recognize scab," the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions
in the U.S., wrote
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response to Trump's remarks on striking workers.

Chris Brooks, a strategist for Fain, added
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the mighty UAW says DONALD TRUMP IS A SCAB, this is exactly what we
mean."

"Listen to Trump in his own words, laughing with anti-union
billionaire Elon Musk about how they both support firing workers who
exercise their right to strike," Brooks added.

Both the AFL-CIO
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and the UAW
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have endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris
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that a second Trump term would "would decimate workers' ability to
organize; gut health and safety protections; attack civil, labor, and
consumer rights; eviscerate retirement security; and undermine our
ability to hold the wealthy and corporations accountable."

Warren Gunnels, staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders
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Trump-Musk conversation that "the problem is not the dude from
Guatemala picking tomatoes for starvation wages," rejecting the pair's
demonization of immigrants.

"The problem is billionaires like Trump and Musk who exploit workers,
rip off the American people, and make a fortune by being conmen,"
Gunnels added. "The problem is corporate greed, boss. Trump and Musk
are scabs."

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Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.

* Shawn Fain; Trump and Musk; Unfair Labor Practises;
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