U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has extended an olive branch to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, saying he is “willing to have a conversation” with him about “anything he would like to talk about” — reports Yahoo Finance.
“Let me put it this way. I would love to have a conversation with Mr. Musk and talk about anything he would like to talk about. Certainly, it’s a big company in the United States of America, and a very innovative company in the United States of America. I am willing to have a conversation with anybody,” Walsh said on Yahoo Finance Live.
The Biden administration has repeatedly refrained from acknowledging Tesla’s efforts and leadership in the electric vehicle (EV) space, going as far as to exclude Tesla from meeting other electric automakers were invited to.
It wasn’t until last month that the company finally received some recognition from the White House, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo took the opportunity to ask Musk for help navigating the ongoing chip shortage immediately after.
Musk and U.S. President Joe Biden have had their differences over Musk’s public criticism of unions and Tesla’s stance as a non-union company. Tesla’s non-unionized employees make more money hourly than veteran automaker General Motors’ unionized workforce.
Musk on Thursday invited the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union to hold a vote for unionization at Tesla’s California factory.
“I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them,” Musk said in a tweet.
Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!
I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
Walsh — long a supporter of unions — said Tesla workers should be allowed to unionize if that’s what they want.
“If the workers at Tesla want to get unionized, they should be. I would hope that Elon Musk would respect their right,” Walsh added.
