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Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

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Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#251
post #238

I wish the NRLB would be much harsher against business owners and executives who engage in anti-union rhetoric and behaviors. People have the right to form unions, lying about losing benefits and lowering pay should be handled much more harshly, there should be actual penalties instead of just having to read a statement and delete a tweet.

I disagree. It should be a free market. If the employees don’t like their treatment they should leave and take a different job. I am sure there is a UAW job out there to be had. The most likely outcome from this is that Tesla moves more and more production out of a California and into a more business friendly state, such as Texas.

calling it a free market is laughable naive. the market is lopsided in favor of businesses because many laws at the state and federal are explicitly pro-business and anti-union; see "right to work laws", the 1947 Taft-Harley act, etc. - especially over the past 20 years

and saying workers should just go and join a union backed job is even sillier when [1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“We give our workers stock options now. We do not expect to do so under a union contract.” I don’t see that as “threatening workers”, but as a reasonable communication between employer and employees and a proper counterbalance against union claims that the workers will be better off if they unionize. “We give our workers stock options now. No other automaker working under a union contract does so.” is something that…

That's real easy to say when there isn't a union yet. And the company has zero incentive to give any kind of realistic and useful information in this situation. They can say whatever they want, and it doesn't mean anything. They don't even know what the non-existent union will want or care about later, so how they can have any accurate expectations even if they are perfectly rational and honest. The only purpose thes…

Everything you're saying applies to union organizers though, which do exists before the union is formed.

And the entire point is that the union forming could be bad for workers in various ways, so if I was a worker I would want to be made aware of what could possibly go wrong before I joined the effort to unionize and no longer had a choice in the matter after the union is fully formed and going strong.

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No absolutely the government should enforce legal agreements via the legal system. But that's not what this is suggesting, right? This is suggesting the government should treat unions preferentially, not equitably.

No, this is suggesting that government should enforce workers' rights to decide freely if they want to unionize. Companies routinely skirt this right by taking explicit anti-unionization efforts, and there are many firms specializing in this.

What is required for "free" decision-making?

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#254
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no problem with unions so long as membership is entirely voluntary for every employee. The problem I have is coercive collectivism. Also, is there any evidence that collective action returns a sustainably larger slice of corporate revenues?

It's a commons problem; voluntary membership means free-riders will destroy the collective resource.

Is that sufficient reason to coerce others to participate? Why should people who want to collectively bargain have a veto over the people who don’t want that?

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#255
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They baited Warren by lying about the fact that Amazon warehouse / delivery employees have to urinate in bottles to meet deadlines? The tweets from their account caused significant negative press for Amazon on news and social media across the world. Amazon is a global company, this kind of disdain for employees isn't looked upon as favourably in other countries. It's bad for business. Especially from an official PR c…

I don't care who was "baited" A US Senator threatening to retaliate and break-up a business because she didn't like tweets about her is straight-up authoritarian thuggery. It's the same shit Trump used to do but when Liz does it...well it's GREAT, she's "fighting for the working class"

So it's okay for a business to treat employees so badly they find they have to piss in bottles?

And it's okay for their official PR twitter account to lie and say it doesn't happen?

But it's not okay that a politician says they're going to do something about it?

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#257
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unionizing Tesla would almost certainly not "accelerate the advent of sustainable transport". More likely cause it to wither and stagnate for the gain of a privileged few as we saw with GM et al.

Suggesting a union is bad because it'd be good "for the benefit of a privileged few" is a bit ironic when the company is mamaged by a man who is in the running for the title of Richest Man in the World.

He’s only the near-richest man in theory. If he tried to convert all of his company ownership into cash, the company value would crash so fast that he would probably be lucky to actually recover one fifth of his theoretical wealth.

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#258
post #238

I wish the NRLB would be much harsher against business owners and executives who engage in anti-union rhetoric and behaviors. People have the right to form unions, lying about losing benefits and lowering pay should be handled much more harshly, there should be actual penalties instead of just having to read a statement and delete a tweet.

I disagree. It should be a free market. If the employees don’t like their treatment they should leave and take a different job. I am sure there is a UAW job out there to be had. The most likely outcome from this is that Tesla moves more and more production out of a California and into a more business friendly state, such as Texas.

Spreading democracy to the workforce does not make the market less "free." It just makes it easier to manipulate by the few.

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggesting a union is bad because it'd be good "for the benefit of a privileged few" is a bit ironic when the company is mamaged by a man who is in the running for the title of Richest Man in the World.

He’s only the near-richest man in theory. If he tried to convert all of his company ownership into cash, the company value would crash so fast that he would probably be lucky to actually recover one fifth of his theoretical wealth.

That's a stupid argument, because none of the people on the richest people lists have any significant portion of wealth in liquid assets. Wealth for good reason is not defined as amount of cash you own.

Re: Elon Musk’s anti-union tweet from 2018 must be deleted: U.S. labor board

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's real easy to say when there isn't a union yet. And the company has zero incentive to give any kind of realistic and useful information in this situation. They can say whatever they want, and it doesn't mean anything. They don't even know what the non-existent union will want or care about later, so how they can have any accurate expectations even if they are perfectly rational and honest. The only purpose thes…

Everything you're saying applies to union organizers though, which do exists before the union is formed. And the entire point is that the union forming could be bad for workers in various ways, so if I was a worker I would want to be made aware of what could possibly go wrong before I joined the effort to unionize and no longer had a choice in the matter after the union is fully formed and going strong.

How could the organisers know what future members want then the company spend much effort on preventing workers from talking to each other?
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