Rocket and satellite maker SpaceX sued a US labor board on Thursday to block its case the company accused of the illegal firing of employees who sent a letter to company executives calling its CEO, Elon Musk, “a distraction and an embarrassment.”
In a lawsuit filed in Brownsville, Texas, federal court, SpaceX claims the structure of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – which issued a complaint against the company on Wednesday – violates the US Constitution.
The NLRB alleges that SpaceX violated federal labor law by firing eight workers in 2022 for signing the letter, which accused Musk of making sexist comments that were against company policy. That case will be heard by an administrative judge and then a five-member panel appointed by the US president. The board’s decisions can be appealed in federal court.
SpaceX claims in its lawsuit that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional because federal law only allows board members and administrative judges to be removed for cause, not at will. The lawsuit seeks to block the NLRB case from moving forward.
A spokesman for the NLRB declined to comment.
SpaceX recently used a similar tactic to block an administrative case by the US Department of Justice alleging that the company illegally refused to hire refugees and asylum seekers.
A federal judge in Brownsville put the administrative case on hold in November, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by SpaceX. The judge said the U.S. Constitution requires that administrative judges at the Justice Department be appointed by the president, not the attorney general, as they currently are.
The NLRB is already facing a similar lawsuit from a Starbucks employee who opposed the unionization of the New York store where she works. The worker sued the board in October after it denied her petition for an election to dissolve the union. The agency has not responded to that lawsuit.
