Last week, Democrat house lawmakers put forward a bill that would give a $4,500 tax incentive to consumers buying electric vehicles assembled at US facilities with a union.
The $4,500 incentive could give an advantage to unionized US automakers such as GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
The bill also grants a $7,500 base consumer incentive for all new EVs sold in the US, and would allow foreign-made cars to claim that incentive for five years. This provision would apply to Ford cars assembled in Mexico.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, claims that the bill had been engineered by lobbyists for Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. In a tweet, Musk said: “This is written by Ford/UAW lobbyists, as they make their electric car in Mexico. Not obvious how this serves American taxpayers.”
Tesla had notoriously been anti-union, and in April, Tesla even filed an appeal against a National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) ruling, which commanded CEO Elon Musk to delete an anti-union tweet.
The tweet in question was posted in 2018 where Musk wrote: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tomorrow if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when the plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”
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The NLRB ordered Musk to remove the tweet and publicly address the unlawful tweet at all of its sites, and include speech that says, “WE WILL take appropriate steps to ensure Musk complies with our directive,” according to Reuters.
Another of Elon Musk’s controversial tweets was calling out President Biden. Musk answered a tweet saying, “American-made should be the top priority! We need to be making the cars of the future here, not losing our auto industry to Mexico and China.” with “Ahem, @POTUS”, tagging the President’s account.
Biden held an event celebrating American electric vehicles but Tesla was absent. There are already been signs of tension between Tesla and the Biden administration over the company’s anti-union stance.
Musk also tweeted at the time that it was “odd that Tesla wasn’t invited.”
