SpaceX charged with illegally firing workers who spoke critically of Elon Musk — Read the full complaint

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against SpaceX, alleging that Elon Musk’s defense contractor illegally fired eight employees after they wrote an open letter critical of Musk and accused the workplace of being selectively permissive of sexual harassment.

CNBC obtained a copy of the NLRB complaint via a Freedom of Information Act request. The complaint says the eight employees of SpaceX “engaged in concerted activities with other employees for the purposes of mutual aid or protection by drafting and distributing an open letter” detailing their workplace concerns.

In their open letter, the SpaceX employees wrote that Musk’s “behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us.” They wrote that his divisive posts on social media, as well as alleged sexual misconduct on his part, went against SpaceX’s own “no ass—-s” and “zero tolerance” policies.

The employees’ open letter was posted internally at SpaceX, after Business Insider reported that Musk had propositioned and exposed himself to a flight attendant on one of the company’s private jets in 2016, leading to a sexual harassment claim against the CEO, which SpaceX reportedly settled for $250,000 in 2018.

Musk has denied the sexual misconduct allegations, calling them “wild accusations.” After the report by Business Insider, SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell also defended Musk against allegations of sexual harassment.

After the then-SpaceX employees penned the open letter, the NLRB found that company management engaged in “interrogation” of the authors and “made coercive statements” to them, including “inviting” the employees to “quit if they disagreed with the behavior of Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.” Eventually, the NLRB complaint says,…