More than 400 SpaceX employees took less than a day and a half to sign an open letter criticizing CEO Elon Musk after some of his co-workers posted it and shared it in an internal chat. Just 32 hours after sharing it, the document’s internal landing page was disconnected, almost at the same time as a group of employees were fired for their involvement in drafting and sharing the letter, a move that it could have been a labor violation. Law.
The open letter was first posted to an internal landing page at noon in the East, and then shared by a handful of employees in about 10 Microsoft Teams chat rooms, as well as an email list. The content was bold: Employees claimed that Musk’s behavior over the past few weeks had become a source of embarrassment and a distraction for the company. The authors of the letters offered suggestions on ways SpaceX could move away from Musk’s presence on Twitter and do better to hold executives and sex offenders accountable.
The writers saw that they had about 3,000 unique visitors to their site
An employee who helped draft the letter, but who wanted to remain anonymous, said that “a large number of employees across a lot of demographics and roles and levels helped write the letter.” Employees had the option to log in to the document by conducting a survey or scanning a QR code.
The largest team channel where the document was shared had approximately 2,600 members, mostly full of engineers, while the other team channels were relatively small. The writers also had plans to distribute a stack of physical copies of the letter, which also had QR codes for people to scan, around food production and service areas. But no one was brave enough to hand them out before the layoffs began, according to one of the people involved. He was also concerned that publishing copies of the letter would be perceived as a trade union organization and that the cameras in the SpaceX building would reveal who distributed them. Before the landing page closed, the writers saw that they had about 3,000 unique visitors to their site.
Although the document eventually garnered 404 signatures, many more people contacted those who shared the letter with Signal, in person and through Teams, saying they would sign if they could afford to be fired. moment, according to a person involved. In 2017, another Musk company, Tesla, fired an employee for distributing pamphlets that encouraged employees to unionize. In addition, in May this year, Musk also tweeted that Tesla would form an “unconditional litigation department” to “initiate and execute lawsuits directly.”
Their fears were credible, as SpaceX management ended up firing at least five employees for their involvement with the letter. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email to the company, denouncing the document and informing the company of the terminations.
“We have too much critical work to do and we don’t need this kind of excessive activism – our current leadership team is more dedicated to ensuring that we have an excellent, constantly improving work environment than anyone I’ve seen in the past. my 35-year career, “Shotwell wrote. Echoing the authors of the letters, he stated that the letter, not Musk’s behavior, was a source of distraction for SpaceX, which has a busy schedule for the next few days and weeks.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from The Verge in time for its release.
“There was no pressure on anyone to collect signatures.”
Shotwell also argued in his email that other employees not involved in the letter had felt uncomfortable, intimidated and pressured to sign the document. However, two of those involved in the writing, speaking on condition of anonymity, dispute this claim. They say they simply posted the letter on Teams channels, pointing it out to people and asking for support.
“There was no pressure on anyone to collect signatures,” said one employee who helped draft the letter, who also wanted to remain anonymous. “The letter is kept open by itself or not.”
News of employee layoffs has spread throughout the company, and some current employees have expressed to The Verge their dismay at the actions the company has taken.
“I feel that going forward, people who don’t agree 100% with Elon will have to keep their mouths shut or leave the company, which is very sad,” said a SpaceX employee who did not participate in the letter. The Virgin. “We all admire his intelligence, but his social behavior is unacceptable and we are in a position where we are proud and ashamed to work for SpaceX.”