SpaceX’s Sexual Harassment Case Could End Worker Protections For All Of Us – Jalopnik

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has a long history of being weird about reproduction. Perhaps its related to his long history of allegedly harassing and exposing himself to women, which a new report from Bloomberg says has been codified in the culture of SpaceX a culture that now has the company facing lawsuits from eight ex-workers.

According to Bob: Public Transit Is a Car Enthusiast's Best Friend

Bloomberg spoke with the fired employees, who claim theres a massive gap between how SpaceX says workers should act and how they actually do and how the company encourages immature behavior from those it employs. From Bloomberg:

At SpaceX, sexual harassment became a joke a long time ago. Some years back, employees at the company holiday party were treated to a 10-minute parody video, one of those eye-rolling exercises where your bosses awkwardly try to land a few punch lines. Believe it or not, this particular video has its moments. Astronauts whose lives are riding on a SpaceX rocket might not be thrilled with the gags about the companys engineers being young or stupidat one point, little kids arrive to lecture the staff, who are depicted trying to solve every engineering problem by hitting things with hammersbut some bits land on the right side of dad joke.

The videos sourest note plays a few minutes in, when a narrator chides a staffer whos just grabbed her colleague Brian Bjeldes butt. We have a very strict sexual-harassment policy, the voiceover intones, and youve got to get it right. Cut to the same woman practicing her harassment technique on Bjelde, whos now SpaceXs vice president for human resources. While he faces an office wall, hands over his head, she spanks him several more times, and another woman helps her refine her form, like a golfer. The eventual punch line is a freeze-frame of her hand on Bjeldes bum accompanied by a chime and a green check mark, indicating that her harassment now meets with company approval.

Ive worked at some HR-risk companies in my time, but a video like that containing people in positions of power at the company, no less is a new level of encouraging bad behavior. SpaceXs reaction, however, is the nuclear option: Trying to gut the entire enforcing body, the National Labor Relations Board. SpaceX is suing to have the entire organization ruled unconstitutional, in a complicated constitutional case:

13. To prevent SpaceX from undergoing protracted administrative proceedings before an unconstitutionally structured agencyafter which SpaceX is unlikely to have a chance to secure meaningful retrospective reliefthe Court should stay or enjoin the current agency proceedings, declare that the NLRBs structure violates the separation of powers under Article II of the Constitution, and permanently enjoin the NLRB and its General Counsel from pursuing unfair labor practice charges against SpaceX before agency officials that are unconstitutionally insulated from presidential oversight.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp v. National Labor Relations Board is a wildly in-depth case, citing articles of the Constitution in seemingly every sentence, but its one thats geared towards the current Supreme Court. The case focuses plenty of its attention on the Presidents inability to easily fire NLRB workers as a constitutional issue, which is targeted right at the Courts declaration that the Presidents management of the Executive Branch requires him to have unrestricted power to remove the most important of his subordinatessuch as the Attorney Generalin their most important duties from the recent Trump v. United States opinion. SpaceXs retaliatory strike against its workers may be nuclear, but its also very possible the Court will like how its written.

SpaceXs culture appears fratty, debaucherous, and altogether unprofessional not to mention aggressive towards people outside of positions of power. Yet, the lengths the company will go to in order to protect that culture reach the highest court in the land. And, if were all unlucky, Musks defenses of sexual harassment will end worker protections for all of us.

More:

SpaceX's Sexual Harassment Case Could End Worker Protections For All Of Us - Jalopnik