Elon Musk’s Brother Wants to Build Utopian Learning Gardens, Without Unions
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The non-profit Big Green, a pet project of Elon Musk’s billionaire entrepreneur brother Kimbal Musk to build vegetable gardens in underfunded schools in Detroit, Memphis, Chicago and other cities, is fighting a union drive led by its staff.
According to three unfair labor practice charges filed by the Communications Worker of America (CWA) union obtained by Motherboard, unionizing staff who build and maintain “learning gardens,” that grow fruits and vegetables, have been retaliated against for discussing and posting about their union on Instagram and Twitter, forbidden from communicating with each other or publicly about the union, and threatened with discipline up to termination for doing so. Luke O’Neil first reported about Big Green’s unionization effort.
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“Big Green has advised employees seeking to join a union that they may not communicate with each other or the media regarding their terms and conditions of employment [and] threatened employers with discipline up to and including termination in the event they speak to each other or publicly regarding their workplace concerns,” one of the charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board on August 2, reads.
In July, the non-profit sent a letter to all staff in response to their request for voluntary union recognition, saying that the company would not recognize the union, according to a current staff member and a CWA union organizer.
Big Green’s anti-union stance coincides with a series of outwardly progressive institutions and companies, including art museums, universities, public interest law firms, and green energy companies, taking measures to ensure their employees don’t unionize. On its website, Big Green states that its aim is to “help kids dig into their education, thrive with real, nutritious foods and healthy habits, and become active participants in strengthening their communities.” Kimball Musk made his fortune in Silicon Valley, with a series of ventures alongside his brother. In recent years, he has focused on his “real food philosophy,” by establishing a network of agricultural and educational ventures in an attempt to transform the country’s food system to local, health, and organic farms. “Our big vision to change food in America to impact all kids, and particularly the most underserved with healthy, vibrant futures, is becoming a reality,” Kimball said of Big Green in 2018.
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During the pandemic, Kimbal’s sustainable restaurant chain, Next Door, which collected income from workers into a “family fund” for emergencies, laid off workers without severance, and the “family fund” mysteriously disappeared.
Kimbal has not made any public statements about the union. But a close friend and confidant to his brother, he sits on the board of SpaceX and Tesla, the latter of which has a record of harassing workers for union activity, banning them from wearing union T-shirts and buttons, and interrogating them about union activism. Elon has made his opposition to a union at Tesla no secret on Twitter, and earlier this year, was ordered by the government to delete an anti-union tweet. Kimbal was also on the board of Chipotle, a company with a substantial allegations of worker abuse, including wage theft and child labor.
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In early 2021, a small group of program coordinators at the company began talking in secret about unionizing after some workers were furloughed during the pandemic and lost their healthcare. Most workers loved their jobs but felt like management was often out-of-touch with the low-income communities they served—and did not give workers enough of a say in how they prioritized different initiatives, so they approached the Denver Newspaper Guild, a branch of CWA, for help unionizing. Soon, they went public on Instagram and Twitter.
“I want a union because I want to have transparency, allow space for our voices to be heard in the ways we interact with the community we gratefully service, as well as give support to members in all our regions,” Sarah Burns, a program coordinator in Memphis, wrote in a post on the union’s Instagram account.
On July 29, Odie Avery, a Detroit-based project manager for Big Green, posted a photo of clean-up day at a schoolyard garden he’d helped build on his public Instagram account, mentioning the union and tagging Kimbal Musk.
The post was captioned, “Our communities are the main reason my colleagues and I have formed @biggreenunion and we continue asking @biggreen and @kimbalmusk to live up to their ‘Big Green Promise’ and voluntarily recognize our unit. Only through collective action can we fully support the communities we serve.”
The next day, management called Avery into a Zoom conference and forbade him from talking about the union during work and going to any school events until September 30, which is the bulk of his job. The ban, he says, was punishment for posting about the union during work hours, posting a photo that featured a coworker who had not consented, and sharing proprietary information about the company’s relationship with the school which had not yet been made public.
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“When they reprimanded me, I was told I’m not allowed to participate in any Big Green events until the end of the quarter, September 30,” Avery told Motherboard. “I can’t go to kick off days or to plant vegetables or maintain the gardens to make sure they’re clean and tidy.”
Avery told Motherboard that previously the company had encouraged employees to post about the company and their work on social media.
Another worker who posted on social media and spoke on a podcast called Street Fight Radio about the union campaign was also punished, according to one of the unfair labor practice charges obtained by Motherboard. “Big Green disciplined [redacted name] for speaking out about the unionization effort in an effort to chill public comment and undermine the unionization effort,” the charge reads.
“The rule about not talking about the union during work hours was never articulated,” Avery continued. “I feel like what they did to me specifically was an attempt to intimidate and scare everyone from speaking out in any way. They’re trying to make an example of us. To Big Green, it boils down to them wanting to pull the strings and call the shots without any pushback.”
All eleven employees in the proposed unit have declared support for the union, and are waiting for a green light from the National Labor Relations Board to set a date for their union election.
Big Green did not respond to a request for comment.
Pete Buttigieg says he doesn’t know why Elon Musk’s Tesla wasn’t invited to Biden’s clean-car showcase
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday he doesn’t know why Elon Musk’s Tesla, by far the biggest name in electric vehicles, won’t appear at the White House when President Joe Biden takes new steps in support of clean cars and trucks.
“I’m not sure,” Buttigieg said when asked on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” why Tesla wasn’t invited to the event, where Biden is expected to sign an executive order setting a national goal for half of all new cars and trucks to be electric or zero-emission by 2030.
Leaders of U.S. auto giants Ford and GM, as well as Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers union are slated to stand alongside Biden at the 3 p.m. ET event.
But Tesla — which is not unionized and has resisted efforts to organize — never heard from the pro-union Biden White House about it.
That’s according to Musk himself, who tweeted overnight, “Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited.”
Asked about that tweet, Buttigieg said he had not seen it and then quickly shifted his focus away from Tesla.
“We’re excited about all of the momentum for making sure that Americans can drive electric vehicles going into the future,” Buttigieg said.
“And by the way, we’re also moving toward a future where this is all across the market. I don’t want there to be a perception that this is just a kind of luxury thing, or that this is just for cars that you use to zip around cities,” said the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
A White House official, asked about Tesla’s absence, told CNBC, “We of course welcome the efforts of all automakers who recognize the potential of an electric future and support efforts that will help reach President Biden’s goal.”
“And we’re excited to see the support and goals not just from the three automakers who will be here today, but all automakers who realize this potential,” the official said.
The Biden administration is expected to announce a proposal to beef up federal fuel economy and emissions standards through the 2026 model year. Those proposed standards are subject to a public comment period and final approval.
The Trump administration had strongly opposed strengthening fuel efficiency standards and had challenged California over a deal it struck with some carmakers to reduce emissions.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
“I F–king Hope He Sues Me”: Inside the Twitter Explosion That Nearly Sunk Elon Musk
Elon Musk landed in Spain in late June 2018, just in time for his brother Kimbal’s wedding and a needed respite. For months, his friends had grown increasingly worried about him as he eschewed their invitations to unwind, telling them he was needed at the factory. His public comments about his now ex-girlfriend Amber Heard seemed unhinged. His newest flame, Claire Boucher, didn’t fit neatly into Musk’s type.
There was no denying the gravity of what he had achieved—nor was there time to bask in it. His attention needed to turn to an equally pressing challenge: delivering cars to customers. An inability to sell the Model S five years earlier, once the factory had fixed its problems, had nearly wrecked the company. This time around, Tesla needed to deliver far more than 4,750 cars, and the goal was more than simply breaking even. This wasn’t about making a point, it was about making cash—to pay suppliers whose bills were mounting. More than just deliver cars, Tesla needed to move beyond its lone assembly plant outside San Francisco; it had to prepare to take the company global, to give it the kind of sales volume and scale it needed to compete against the likes of General Motors.
And yet despite the conflicting needs—rest, refocusing on sales—Musk’s mind was drawn elsewhere. He was on the verge of a public meltdown that might not only tarnish his reputation and distract Tesla from completing its goal of ushering in a mainstream electric car, but might do the one thing that Musk had fought so hard over the years to avoid: cause him to lose control of the company.
Musk’s Twitter habit seemed harmless enough. He obsessively checked the social media platform throughout his day, but then, who didn’t? Some of his earliest public blunders had occurred on the site. He’d unnerved onlookers months earlier with an April Fool prank suggesting the company was broke. He’d taken to the platform to gloat when Tesla’s market value overtook Ford’s more than a year earlier, jabbing at short sellers—those investors betting against him—who were feeling the pinch.
This time, an unfolding drama on the other side of the world caught his attention: a boys’ soccer team was trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. As the world watched rescuers try to save them, someone on Twitter urged Musk to intervene. At first he demurred, but within days he was proclaiming that his engineers would design a mini-submarine to rescue the kids—even if it wasn’t clear that the rescuers in Thailand wanted such help. He documented his efforts on Twitter.
Tesla’s team was preparing for Musk to meet with Chinese government leaders, to celebrate the automaker’s deal to open a factory in China—a hugely consequential move that could propel Tesla beyond a niche car company. Instead of drawing attention to that triumph, Musk had other plans. En route to China, Musk had his jet stop in Thailand, where he rushed to the cave site. He posted pictures on Twitter. “Just returned from Cave 3. Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids' soccer team. Leaving here in case it may be used in the future. Thailand is so beautiful,” he wrote on July 9, even as a daring (and ultimately successful) rescue attempt was underway.
Musk’s sub was never used, and Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the operation coordinating the rescue, told reporters the submarine wouldn’t have been practical for the mission. By then, Musk was in China. He received a text from Boucher, better known as Grimes, alerting him to the statement and warning that the media was turning against him. He reached out to his staff: “I just woke up in Shanghai. What’s happening?” As the team tried to figure out who Osottanakorn was, Sam Teller, Musk’s chief of staff, weighed in with an email: “He’s the fucking regional governor who has ignored our calls.”
Musk couldn’t let the perceived slight go. He wrote back: “We need to go all out and make this guy retract his comment.”
The sentiment only grew worse. A couple days later, a British man named Vernon Unsworth, a spelunker who helped rescuers with his knowledge of the caves, was interviewed by CNN. In a passing question, he was asked about Musk’s submarine. He called it a PR stunt and said that “it had absolutely no chance of working” and that Musk had “no conception of what the cave passage was like.” He said Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
The video clip quickly began making the rounds on Twitter. By July 15, Musk was furious, attacking Unsworth in a series of messages on Twitter that included this one: “Sorry pedo guy. You really did ask for it.”
This didn’t create a Twitter storm. It caused a category 5 hurricane. Shares plunged 3.5 percent, wiping out almost $2 billion of valuation. James Anderson of Baillie Gifford, one of Tesla’s largest investors, weighed in during an interview, calling the event “a regrettable instance” and saying Tesla needs “peace and execution.” Major news outlets began reaching out to Tesla’s communications department to ask if Musk was, in fact, calling Unsworth a pedophile. The team closely monitored the coverage, following more than two dozen headlines from the BBC to Gizmodo. One aide wrote a memo analyzing the situation: “Media continue to cover E’s tweet, with some stories mentioning that the ‘outburst’ comes ‘just a week after he said in a Bloomberg interview that he would try to be less combative on Twitter.’” It went on to say that a number of investors and analysts “believe his comments are adding to their concerns that he’s distracted from Tesla’s main business.”
Early the next morning, July 17, Teller, the 32-year-old chief of staff, tried to reason with Musk, saying it was time to apologize. He told him that he had talked with all of the people Musk held in deep regard—board member Antonio Gracias, CFO Deepak Ahuja, general counsel Todd Maron (his former divorce lawyer), and others—and they all agreed that an apology and a break from Twitter “sets you back on the right path internally and externally.” Teller had even taken the liberty of writing out what an apology letter could say. He told his boss: “Everyone will love and respect you more for openly admitting the mistake and showing how much you care about your employees and the company mission.”