Sens. Warren and Blumenthal investigate NLRB decision to drop charges against SpaceX for retaliatory firings

According to correspondence first obtained by CNBC, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., launched an investigation Wednesday into the National Labor Relations Board into the agency’s decision to drop charges against Elon Musk’s SpaceX for retaliatory firings.

SpaceX plans to go public in June and $2 trillion valuation.

Under the Biden administration, the NLRB had accused the aerospace and defense firm of illegally firing employees in retaliation for criticism of Musk, alleging in an open letter that he had engaged in sexist behavior and that there was a broader culture of sexual harassment at SpaceX.

The NLRB rejected those charges in February, citing jurisdictional issues.

Warren and Blumenthal requested information and records from the NLRB, according to correspondence first obtained by CNBC; sought to determine whether the agency dropped the charges based on “political considerations rather than the facts at hand,” effectively bowing to the wishes of Musk, who spent nearly $300 million to return President Trump to the White House.

When the NLRB dismissed the charges against SpaceX earlier this year, it said the company should be regulated under the Railroad Labor Act, which governs labor relations at railroads and airlines, and referred employees’ complaints to the National Mediation Board.

“By facilitating this agency change, the NLRB was effectively closing the case: these workers’ wrongful termination charges cannot proceed in the NMB because the NMB’s governing law does not protect the same kinds of planned activities as the NLRB does,” Warren and Blumenthal wrote in their April 15 letter to the NLRB.

They also said part of NMB’s assertion of jurisdiction over SpaceX includes an “absurd” claim that SpaceX is “a carrier that carries mail by air for or under contract with the United States Government,” since SpaceX sometimes delivers mail to the International Space Station for NASA.

Senators asked the NLRB to provide, by April 29, information and records explaining, among other things, the reasons for changing their jurisdictional position and a list of all communications that occurred between the agency and Musk or his representatives and any precedents, if any, for counting a rocket company like SpaceX as an airmail carrier.

In 2024, SpaceX filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the NLRB’s structure violated the Constitution and that the agency should not be allowed to enforce workers’ complaints about unfair treatment by employers. This lawsuit comes after nine SpaceX employees were fired for sending an open letter to management.

Musk has clashed with union advocates for years, including at his auto company Tesla. The NLRB ruled in 2021 that Tesla and Musk violated labor laws when they fired a union activist and Musk violated labor laws. he wrote on Twitter In 2018: “There’s nothing stopping the Tesla team at our auto plant from voting union. They can do that if they want. So why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?”

CNBC has reached out to the NLRB and SpaceX for comment.