The nation’s top labor regulator has announced that it is dismissing a case accusing SpaceX of illegally firing eight employees who criticized the rocket company’s chief executive, Elon Musk.
In a letter to the workers’ lawyers dated Feb. 6, an official at the National Labor Relations Board said the agency was abandoning the case because it lacked jurisdiction. Adopting an argument made by SpaceX, it said that another regulator, known as the National Mediation Board, was the proper authority to hear the case.
“This is one of a million terrible things going on in the U.S. right now,” said Deborah Lawrence, one of the fired SpaceX employees, in a statement. “It’s an example of one of the many ways that our government is now actively hostile to its people, including when it comes to labor law.”
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment and a spokesman for the labor board declined to comment. The labor board’s decision was reported earlier by Bloomberg.
The events in the case date back to 2022, when a group of SpaceX employees circulated a letter asking the company to distance itself from social media comments by Mr. Musk, including one in which he made light of accusations of sexual harassment directed at him.
Soon after, SpaceX fired several of the employees involved in writing and circulating the letter. In 2024, the labor board issued a complaint, saying the firings were retaliatory and that they interfered with employees’ federally protected rights to engage in certain collective activities.
Lawyers for SpaceX fought the labor board complaint, arguing that the board’s structure violated the separation of powers mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Other companies, like Amazon, have made similar arguments in other cases, but experts have regarded them skeptically, noting that the Supreme Court had long ago settled the question of constitutionality. The arguments about constitutionality continue to be made in federal court.
The grounds for the recent dismissal were more modest: SpaceX argued that it was a common carrier — like an airline — because it allows anyone to book space travel and because it operates with a license from the Federal Aviation Administration, among other reasons. As such, the company argued, it should be regulated by the National Mediation Board, which oversees airlines and railroad companies, rather than the N.L.R.B., which oversees most of the private-sector work force.
In mid-January, the mediation board issued a decision affirming those arguments and claiming jurisdiction, and the labor relations board has effectively deferred to it. In general, workers who fall under the mediation board’s jurisdiction have fewer protections than those under the labor board. Laurie Burgess, a lawyer representing the workers, said their next step was unclear because the dismissal and assertion of jurisdiction by another agency put the case in uncharted legal territory.
Matthew Bodie, a former lawyer for the N.L.R.B. who now teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School, said in an email that the case for surrendering jurisdiction to the other agency had a certain literal logic, but that it appeared to be at odds with how SpaceX currently functions.
For example, while anyone can email the company and ask for a ride into space, that is merely the beginning of a negotiation that may or may not end up with a spot on a SpaceX rocket, which exceedingly few private citizens have managed to secure.
“SpaceX operates very differently than the airlines,” Mr. Bodie said. “It’s a stretch to call it a ‘common carrier.’”
The fired workers are still pursuing harassment and retaliation claims related to their dismissal in California courts.
The dismissal of the case may underscore concerns that Mr. Musk has used his close relationship with President Trump to benefit his business interests.
When Mr. Musk headed up the Department of Government Efficiency, taking on an important role in the federal government, experts worried that he would have the power to cut staff and resources from agencies that help fund or regulate his various businesses. Among the agencies DOGE appeared to take an interest in was the National Labor Relations Board, which has struggled to function partly because of vacancies the Trump administration has been slow to fill.
Jennifer Abruzzo, who served as the general counsel to the N.L.R.B. when the agency first brought the case, said the agencies “seem to have lost their independence and their mission to protect workers’ rights, and are instead elevating corporate interests, including those of billionaire donors and enablers of this administration.”
In 2023, Mr. Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies, according to an analysis by The New York Times. At the time of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, his companies were under at least 20 investigations or reviews by federal agencies. One of those was the SpaceX employees’ case. t
Noam Scheiber is a Times reporter covering white-collar workers, focusing on issues such as pay, artificial intelligence, downward mobility and discrimination. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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