Elon Musk Just Won His War on Labor Unions [View all]

The Fifth Circuit has done the mogul’s bidding and neutered the National Labor Relations Board, in a move that will likely substantially damage workers’ rights.

https://newrepublic.com/article/199356/elon-musk-won-war-labor

https://archive.ph/6ygvX



The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure is unconstitutional, dealing another severe blow to the board’s ability to resolve labor-management disputes and enforce federal labor laws across the country.

The case itself reads like a Gilded Age parable. South African–born billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, had asked the court to block the board’s enforcement actions against one of his companies for its alleged anti-union activities. A panel of three Republican-appointed federal judges in Texas, two of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed with him.

“The Employers have made their case and should not have to choose between compliance and constitutionality,” Judge Don Willett wrote for the panel, referring to Musk’s company SpaceX and two others that had sued on similar grounds. “When an agency’s structure violates the separation of powers, the harm is immediate—and the remedy must be, too.”

Tuesday’s ruling in SpaceX v. NLRB is a significant blow to American workers who hope to organize their workplaces without fear of retaliation. It represents a partial negation of the New Deal, along with 90 years of legal precedent—and a victory for the conservative legal establishment’s war against federal regulatory power.

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