Elon Musk calls out the UAW for embezzling money from its workers

[TruckElectric]

Joe Biden isn't going to like this one bit!



ByJoey Klender
Posted on March 29, 2022

Elon Musk took a jab at the UAW today after a report showed an ex-official of the automotive workers union pled guilty to embezzling $2.2 million from its workers.

Musk has admonished the UAW for years, but the most recent criticism has come from Tesla’s lack of recognition from President Joe Biden, who has given unionized companies like GM the nod of being “the leader in electrification.” Musk, who has been Tesla’s CEO since 2008, commented the UAW’s slogan is “Fighting for the right to embezzle money from auto workers!” in a Tweet. “The UAW stole millions from workers, whereas Tesla has made many workers millionaires (via stock grants). Subtle, but important difference,” Musk added.




Previously, Musk criticized the UAW as far back as May 2018. Musk said Tesla has held a better record of employee treatment compared to the UAW. “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare,” the CEO said in 2018.

More recently, Musk invited the UAW to hold a vote “at their convenience” at Tesla’s Fremont factory in Northern California. “Tesla will do nothing to stop them,” Musk said, after describing the Bay Area’s negative employment, which would invite employees to work elsewhere if they weren’t compensated well. “…if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!”

Musk’s most recent criticism comes at the hands of UAW Local 412, which represents about 2,600 employees for Stellantis in the Detroit area.

Timothy Edmunds, a former secretary-treasurer of UAW Local 412, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count each of embezzling union funds and money laundering. Edmunds “systematically drained” the Local’s bank accounts, which came to about $2.2 million. He used the labor group’s credit card for personal purchases, including cashing local checks and transferring money into personal accounts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Edmunds also bought guns, cars, and gambled, and used the funds to pay child support, a report from Reuters (via AutoBlog) said. The union found Edmunds’ spending habits and improper expenditures and turned the findings over to federal authorities.


https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-calls-out-the-uaw-for-embezzling-money-from-its-workers/

 

[Crissa]

Estimates of wage theft have it dwarf this crime by a huge amount; overall wage theft in the US is somewhere in the realm of 50 billion dollars, or 25,000x this theft.

Only about three billion dollars of wage theft is caught each year, which would be less than 6% of the total. And only a few hundred million is usually recovered.

Tesla alone was fined over 100x the amounts alleged in these cases for labor violations just last year. (Although that wasn't wage theft, they and SpaceX have lost wage theft cases, though.)

Elon shouldn't open his mouth here.

-Crissa

 

[TruckElectric]

Elon shouldn't open his mouth here.

Yes he should.

 

[Crissa]

Yes he should.

No, he should learn something from it instead - there are corrupt people everywhere, so we need to build systems that weed them out.

-Crissa

 

[SparkChaser]

Not to mention all the CEOs and executives that have killed pensions and chopped wages and benefits while taking huge bonuses. The small amount of bad apples in Unions is tiny compared to the damage done by greedy execs

 

[SparkChaser]

At lease unions have ways like elections to hold the leaders accountable.

 

[EV Rob]

Don't forget the following theft:

- Deducting FICA for social security benefits that the system will be unable to pay. FICA is currently collecting $1.373 trillion, soon it will have to cut benefits by 20%. That's $270 billion in theft.

- Inflation, right now stealing an extra 7% per year from everyone. Total personal income is $21 trillion, so inflation is stealing $1.5 trillion each year from income alone. It's also stealing from accumulated personal savings and investments- someone else can do the math on that.

That's another 35 times the $50 billion in wage theft. You can argue with the math (that inflation is going somewhere), but it's a big number.

 

[Crissa]

Don't forget the following theft:

- Deducting FICA for social security benefits that the system will be unable to pay. FICA is currently collecting $1.373 trillion, soon it will have to cut benefits by 20%. That's $270 billion in theft.

No, this isn't true. Social security is always ten, fifteen years from running out of money. Last year it was 2033, this year it'll run out in 2035. The date always gets pushed out because people still pay FICA. At no point will people stop paying FICA. And to be honest, it's stupid that it only applies to 75% of our household's income and some uncountable small portion of Elon Musk's income.

- Inflation, right now stealing an extra 7% per year from everyone. Total personal income is $21 trillion, so inflation is stealing $1.5 trillion each year from income alone. It's also stealing from accumulated personal savings and investments- someone else can do the math on that.

Also not true. That's not how inflation works. Inflation doesn't raise your mortgage, your car payment, or your taxes. For the median American, that's nearly three quarters of their spending that inflation can't touch. It doesn't touch your debt, and it doesn't touch payment plans you've agreed to.

Median income increased before inflation kicked in, too, so most people were already earning more.

That's another 35 times the $50 billion in wage theft. You can argue with the math (that inflation is going somewhere), but it's a big number.

...That is the weakest excuse for wage theft I have ever heard. Second of all, there's less than 12 trillion in wages, which means every year except last year wage theft steals more than inflation.

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

Lol here we go again.

 

[Crissa]

Lol here we go again.

Ehh, it's just a problem in observation. People are programmed to see the bad - so it can be avoided, right?

But that applies to these big seeming vague things - people report on the negatives and never the positives.

Who's going to report that the expiration date of the Social Security trust fund slipped another year? Or that the only reason it has one is to pay off the baby boomers, of which most will be dead in 2035?

Or who's going to go 'yay, my debt is relatively smaller now compared to my COLA'?

Or report when food prices go back down? (for instance tomatoes haven't been this cheap since 2017, and we're six months ahead of the peak of the season.)

?‍

-Crissa

 

[TruckElectric]

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX could have ‘died’ if billionaire’s tax existed in 2008

Elon Musk has slammed the White House’s plan to impose a “billionaires’ tax” on the wealthiest Americans – claiming that his companies likely wouldn’t have survived if the levy had been in place following the 2008 financial crisis.

The so-called “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” included in Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget proposal would implement a 20% minimum tax on US households worth more than $100 million. The plan would target both stated income and unrealized capital gains.

Musk responded a blog post by American Enterprise Institute fellow James Pethokoukis, which detailed University of Chicago economist Steven Kaplan’s argument that cash-strapped Tesla and SpaceX could have collapsed in 2008 if the billionaire had exited PayPal with $60 million less due to a wealth tax.

“Good point. SpaceX & Tesla would probably have died, since both narrowly escaped bankruptcy in 2008,” Musk tweeted in response to the post.



Musk has plenty of incentive to speak out against a billionaire’s tax. The Tesla founder is the world’s richest individual, with a personal net worth estimated to exceed $290 billion as of Wednesday.

By one estimate, Musk would pay an additional $50 billion in taxes under the latest Biden proposal.

By one estimate, Elon Musk would pay $50 billion under a wealth tax.BACKGRID
Musk has described 2008 as “definitely the worst year of my life” as he struggled to keep Tesla and SpaceX afloat while going through a divorce. He invested all of the $180 million in his proceeds from the sale PayPal into the firms.

President Biden and other proponents of a billionaire’s tax – including frequent Musk foe Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) – argue it is necessary to ensure all Americans are paying their fair share in taxes. The Biden administration has also floated a wealth tax as a key source of revenue to pay for its expansive slate of social spending programs.

Both Tesla and SpaceX were in danger of collapse during the Great Recession.NurPhoto via Getty Images

“I’m happy to celebrate success, but let’s remember, Elon Musk didn’t make it on his own,” Warren told CNBC this week. “He got huge investments from the government, from taxpayers, from those public school teachers and those minimum wage workers who’ve been paying their taxes all along to get that business up and running and help see it through rough times.”

 

[JBee]

Ehh, it's just a problem in observation. People are programmed to see the bad - so it can be avoided, right?

But that applies to these big seeming vague things - people report on the negatives and never the positives.

Who's going to report that the expiration date of the Social Security trust fund slipped another year? Or that the only reason it has one is to pay off the baby boomers, of which most will be dead in 2035?

Or who's going to go 'yay, my debt is relatively smaller now compared to my COLA'?

Or report when food prices go back down? (for instance tomatoes haven't been this cheap since 2017, and we're six months ahead of the peak of the season.)

?‍

-Crissa

So long we can turn down the bias and attribute positives to those that actually made it happen, sure.

 

[Crissa]

This is bullcrap.

The tax is an alternative minimum tax. The majority of Musk's earnings are taxed at the earned income rate, which is much higher that the capital gains rate, which is itself was higher than the suggested minimum tax.

So whoever did this math is straight up wrong. And the companies wouldn't have extended themselves as far as they did without his ability to back them up, which doesn't mean they would have failed.

Why is it these guys support flat taxes for us, which would raise the taxes of most poorer Americans, but when suggesting they pay a similar rate to others, they balk?

This is pure greed. Elon already pays more than any other billionaire. He shouldn't speak about this.

-Crissa

 

[SparkChaser]

This is bullcrap.

The tax is an alternative minimum tax. The majority of Musk's earnings are taxed at the earned income rate, which is much higher that the capital gains rate, which is itself was higher than the suggested minimum tax.

So whoever did this math is straight up wrong. And the companies wouldn't have extended themselves as far as they did without his ability to back them up, which doesn't mean they would have failed.

Why is it these guys support flat taxes for us, which would raise the taxes of most poorer Americans, but when suggesting they pay a similar rate to others, they balk?

This is pure greed. Elon already pays more than any other billionaire. He shouldn't speak about this.

-Crissa

He is probably doing the barrowed against and never realized dance to keep as much as possible. This is the real reason behind the minimum tax idea. Many billions are never taxed in this way.

 

[Crissa]

He is probably doing the barrowed against and never realized dance to keep as much as possible. This is the real reason behind the minimum tax idea. Many billions are never taxed in this way.

He's not. He did that a little for his houses, but mostly seems to be a set and forget engineer when it comes to this.

I swear, he seems to have a really low knowledge in this arena. I have done my taxes by myself - ever since I started and ran my own business when I was 17. And my spouse has had options on and off since 1998, when we first legally cojoined our finances.

Back when he was getting money from his PayPal payout it was capital gains and this wouldn't have raised his taxes. He also wasn't a billionaire then so it wouldn't have applied.

-Crissa