Will Tesla’s American factories soon come to a halt? The threat looms.

Following the controversial debate between Musk and Trump on the social network X, the North American workers’ union has filed a lawsuit.

What is Elon Musk playing at? A fervent ideological and financial supporter of Donald Trump’s candidacy for the 2024 U.S. election, who advocates for the elimination of electric vehicle subsidies and the resumption of drilling to extract more oil, claiming that climate change is a lie, the Tesla CEO is ruining a decade of efforts to shift mindsets towards a greener world.

The heavily publicized exchange between the South African billionaire and the former U.S. president on the social network X (owned by Musk) on Monday, August 12, 2024, ignited a firestorm. The issue stemmed from a moment where the megalomaniac entrepreneur and candidate Trump agreed that a workers’ strike was a sufficient reason for dismissal. This contradicts current federal laws in the United States.

In response, the UAW, the powerful North American automotive, aerospace, and agricultural workers’ union (United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico), decided to file a lawsuit in court for this threat to employees’ working conditions.

In response to this lawsuit, Elon Musk shifted the topic to financial fraud that tarnishes the UAW’s management, tweeting that “the two previous presidents of the UAW have been imprisoned for bribery and corruption and that, according to recent information, it seems this guy will join them,” while commenting on a photo of Shawn Fain.

Toward a strike in the Tesla factories?

Frustration is brewing in Tesla factories where the boss does not hesitate to parry the replacement of assembly line workers with humanoid robots to save on wages and increase productivity. According to Tesla, the Shanghai factory (China) would already be devoid of 95% of workers! In Sweden, a strike by Tesla workers has lasted for a year, and Musk has made no concessions, convinced that the unrest will fade away on its own.

The UAW has about 400,000 active members and could, in the coming days, call for a major strike in the Tesla factories as was the case in 2023 at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. The Big Three eventually conceded after months of striking to secure a wage of $35 per hour. No comparison can be made with France because social security and employer contributions are not the same in the United States, with employees needing to contribute from their earnings for social protection, for example.

Ultimately, the Musk-Trump debate was a relative fiasco. Between technical problems (Musk claimed his network was under attack…) and unpopularity, the event recorded only 1.3 million cumulative viewers. With a population of 340 million, not to mention foreign observers, the audience is very low.

All this commotion is greatly displeasing to Tesla shareholders, and we return to our initial question: what is Elon Musk playing at?

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