SpaceX has launched a “crusade” to defend itself against the National Labor Relations Board after the federal agency accused the space exploration firm of illegally firing employees who sent a letter to company executives criticizing CEO Elon Musk and his alleged sexist comments.
US labor board judge Sharon Steckler kicked off the multiday hearing from Los Angeles via Zoom on Tuesday — greater than a 12 months after the NLRB initially brought the case against Space X.
The agency’s accusations triggered a counter-suit from SpaceX filed in Texas federal court in January, which sought to block the case from moving forward and bashed the NLRB’s structure as unconstitutional.
Matthew Bodie, a labor law professor on the University of Minnesota and a former field attorney with the NLRB, told Fortune that SpaceX’s retaliation to the NLRB’s claims “looks like more of a crusade, almost, than a rational economic response to litigation.”
“This seems far more an ideological debate than how most employers handle it,” Bodie added.
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A judge last month transferred the case to California, and the fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected the corporate’s challenge to that call.
Harry Johnson, a lawyer for SpaceX and former labor board member, said during Tuesday’s 20-minute hearing on the NLRB that the corporate is considering its options regarding the fifth Circuit’s decision.
That would include asking the complete appeals court to reconsider the ruling, he said.
The short hearing was procedural, specializing in challenges by the board and SpaceX to subpoenas issued by all sides.
Judge Steckler didn’t hear testimony or opening statements, and it wasn’t immediately clear when these proceedings will begin.
It’s unlikely that Musk could be asked to testify in the course of the hearing, according to Fortune, which is predicted to proceed into May.
Still, the chief of the $180 billion private space company is spearheading the pushback against the NLRB, which began when the group’s general counsel, which acts as a prosecutor, claims SpaceX violated US labor law by ousting the eight engineers who circulated the “open letter” back in 2022, which called Musk “a distraction and embarrassment” and claimed the corporate tolerated discrimination against women.
It’s unclear what arguments SpaceX intends to make once the hearing is fully underway.
Bodie told Fortune that it’s likely the employer would justify that the staffers in query were fired for other reasons, akin to underperformance.
Bodie suggested that SpaceX may additionally argue that the staff were complaining about Musk’s actions on his social media site X, then generally known as Twitter, which is non-job-related and due to this fact wouldn’t have been protected, according to Fortune.
“I feel there’s at the least an argument there that what they were doing was not about their very own terms and conditions of employment,” he said.
SpaceX was accused of violating the National Labor Relations Act, which protects workers’ rights to band together and advocate for higher working conditions.
If SpaceX loses, it may very well be ordered to reinstate the workers and compensate them for lost pay and advantages.
At that time, the corporate may also appeal Steckler’s decision to the NLRB’s five-member board — which currently has one emptiness — after which a federal appeals court.
Representatives for SpaceX and the NLRB didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The engineers have individually filed complaints with a California civil rights agency accusing SpaceX of tolerating sex discrimination and retaliating against workers who complained.
With Post wires.