Trader Joe’s and Starbucks are helping Elon Musk undermine the US government | Steven Greenhouse

SpaceX is trying to kill a federal agency that accused it of labor violations. Ostensibly progressive brands have leaped to join in

Elon Musk boasts that he's a free speech absolutist", but that didn't stop his rocket company, SpaceX, from firing eight workers who had criticized him for making light of reports that SpaceX had settled a sexual harassment claim against him.

Not stopping there, SpaceX has moved to put the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the US's top labor watchdog, out of business. Earlier this year, a day after the board accused SpaceX of illegally retaliating against those workers, SpaceX filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that seeks to have the labor board - which has successfully overseen relations between business and unions since the 1930s - declared unconstitutional and shut down.

Steven Greenhouse, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, is an American labor and workplace journalist and writer