California officials deny Musk's SpaceX subsidy request after union objects
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was in a standoff with California county officials
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California officials denied SpaceX's request for a $655,500 in worker training subsidies on Friday after the Teamsters union sent a letter asking them to reject the request from Elon Musk's company because it's "not deserving of taxpayers' dollars."
California's Employment Training Panel, an eight-person board that includes four labor officials, voted down SpaceX's request.
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"It is time for Elon Musk [and] Silicon Valley to slow down and stop breaking things at the expense of workers, and instead help create a California that works for all," board member Gretchen Newsom wrote on Twitter on Saturday. Newsom is also political director of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569.
The panel's decision comes after Musk clashed with officials in California's Alameda County over reopening a Tesla plant and threatened to move operations out of the state.
Elon Musk, Founder and Chief Engineer of SpaceX, attends the Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, DC, United States on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
"In his role as Tesla CEO, Mr. Musk violated the National Labor Relations Act in 2017 when he illegally threatened and retaliated against workers who supported a union, as an administrative law judge ruled last September," Teamsters leaders wrote in the letter. "He also violated Alameda County rules and reopened the luxury auto maker’s plant in Fremont this week despite the county’s health concerns."
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Neither SpaceX nor Tesla are unionized.
FOX Business' inquiries to the California Employee Training Panel and SpaceX were not returned at the time of publication.