Elon Musk says letting workers unionize creates 'lords and peasants'. What?

[Jilly_in_VA]

Steven Greenhouse

In case workers need any additional arguments for why labor unions are good for them, a powerful new argument comes from none other than Elon Musk. Last month at the New York Times DealBook Summit, a gathering of lords of finance and industry, Musk said: “I disagree with the idea of unions … I just don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing.”

That the world’s richest human dissed the idea of unions should certainly be seen as a selling point for unionizing. Musk’s statement shows that he realizes that unions can be highly effective in harnessing the collective voice and power of workers, not just to limit the autonomy of power-hungry CEOs like him in managing their companies, but also to counter the capricious and often officious way he runs things. Musk is allergic to the idea of letting workers and their union have a voice in how to run – and improve – things.

Musk also sought to slime unions by saying: “Unions naturally try to create negativity in a company.” He seems to conveniently forget who has created the negativity at his companies. After acquiring Twitter, Musk fired four-fifths of its 7,500 workers. There, it was Lord Elon, not a union, that created a tsunami of negativity.

Not only that, Musk – making Twitter’s workers play a twisted game of Survivor to vie for the remaining jobs – seemed to gloat when employees worked 20 hours a day and slept in the office as they tried to impress him that they should be spared his axe. Indeed, Musk reportedly told employees to sleep in the office.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/20/elon-musk-unions-tesla

Eloon Mush, the world's richest a__hole.

[Voltaire2]

1. Musk is discovering that in societies with strong trade unions

and where those unions are not intentionally crippled by the legal system, the capitalist owners actually have to negotiate in good faith with those unions or suffer the consequences. Poor baby. So unfair.

[appalachiablue]

2. K/R Which one of his staff gave him that line

[Aristus]

3. What a stupid asshole.

It was the labor shortage caused by the Black Plague that ended feudal lordship. The much-reduced workforce realized they could leverage their scarcity into improved pay and working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively. Unions (or guilds, if you prefer) helped end the 'lords and peasants' thing.

But you can't expect this festering dipstick to understand that...

[multigraincracker]

4. Easy way to get rid of unions....

Eat the rich.