Elon Musk Hosting SNL: A Very Bad Joke on Working People
Before we even find out if Elon Musk can do comedy, we know this: Letting him host “Saturday Night Live” is a joke.
Musk has used his social-media megaphone to spread misinformation about COVID, endanger employees’ health and violate their organizing rights. He’s exactly the kind of union-busting CEO who proves why American workers need the PRO Act, a bill sitting in the Senate that will help us reclaim our power.
As the pandemic raged, Musk ignored local health orders, reopened the Tesla facility in Fremont, Calif., and only granted unpaid leave to Tesla employees. When they took it, he fired them anyway — simply for trying to stop the spread and caring for their health. At least 450 Tesla workers were infected.
Musk is far from the only boss to endanger his employees, and labor unions are far and away the best way to keep them safe. It is the official way coworkers unite to improve wages and working conditions, win safety protection, fight discrimination and guarantee equal pay. There’s power in numbers; labor unions leverage the collective voice of workers to make life-changing and, as we’ve seen over this past year, life-saving differences in a workplace.