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 — more than a year 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 at the University of Minnesota and a former field attorney with the NLRB, told Fortune that SpaceX’s retaliation to the NLRB’s claims “seems like more of a crusade, almost, than a rational economic response to litigation.”
“This seems much 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 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected the company’s challenge to that decision.
Harry Johnson, a lawyer for SpaceX and former labor board member, said during Tuesday’s 20-minute hearing at the NLRB that the company is considering its options regarding the 5th Circuit’s decision.
That could include asking the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling, he said.
The short hearing was procedural, focusing on challenges by the board and SpaceX to subpoenas issued by each side.
Judge Steckler did not hear testimony or opening statements, and it wasn’t immediately clear when these proceedings will begin.
It’s unlikely that Musk would be asked to testify during the hearing, according to Fortune, which is expected to continue 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 company 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 question were fired for other reasons, such as underperformance.
Bodie suggested that SpaceX may also argue that the employees were complaining about Musk’s actions on his social media site X, then known as Twitter, which is non-job-related and therefore wouldn’t have been protected, according to Fortune.
“I think there’s at least an argument there that what they were doing was not about their 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 better working conditions.
If SpaceX loses, it could be ordered to reinstate the workers and compensate them for lost pay and benefits.
At that point, the company can also appeal Steckler’s decision to the NLRB’s five-member board — which currently has one vacancy — and then a federal appeals court.
Representatives for SpaceX and the NLRB did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The engineers have separately filed complaints with a California civil rights agency accusing SpaceX of tolerating sex discrimination and retaliating against workers who complained.
With Post wires.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
