US labour board abandons years-long fight against SpaceX on complaint filed by eight engineers who wrote an open letter criticising Elon Musk

The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed its case against SpaceX. This has ended a two-year legal fight over the rocket company’s firing of eight engineers who criticised CEO Elon Musk in an open letter.

The labour board cited jurisdictional issues as the reason for dropping the complaint.

In a letter to the attorneys of former employees, the NLRB cited a recent opinion from the National Mediation Board, arguing that SpaceX engineers fall under the National Mediation Board's jurisdiction rather than the NLRB's. “Accordingly, the National Labor Relations Board lacks jurisdiction over the employer, and therefore, I am dismissing your charge,” Danielle Pierce, a regional director of the agency, wrote in the letter seen by Bloomberg.The NMB oversees railroad and airline companies, including American Airlines Group. In contrast, the NLRB oversees most other private-sector employers, including manufacturers like Boeing Co. The complaint was originally issued two years ago, alleging that SpaceX fired the engineers for their involvement in the open letter.

How NLRB’s retreat can be ‘good news’ for SpaceX and not for its employees

The NLRB's retreat can be a favourable outcome for SpaceX, as former and current employees will now have less legal recourse when alleging retaliation, the report noted.

Under US law, workers covered by the NLRB have the right to engage in collective action to improve their working conditions, with or without a union. Meanwhile, workers under NMB jurisdiction are covered by a different law, which lacks equivalent protections."The legal system doesn't feel like it's working like it's supposed to, and it doesn't feel like it's protecting workers the way it's supposed to. I think that this is a sign of worse things to come in declawing the NLRB,” said Paige Holland-Thielen, one of the fired engineers, told Bloomberg.In 2024, SpaceX responded to the NLRB's complaint by suing the agency, arguing that its structure was unconstitutional. That lawsuit led to an injunction from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that paused the Labour Board's case against the company.Under the previous US President Joe Biden, Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB's general counsel, refused to accept the claim of the SpaceX firm that the NMB should be the one to deal with the accusations levelled against the firm. However, in January 2025, following the dismissal of Abruzzo by the previous US President Donald Trump, the firm sought the reconsideration of the issue before theIn April, the NLRB general counsel's office said it had chosen to seek the mediation board's view "in the interests of potentially settling" the disputes with SpaceX.However, the fired engineers argued that SpaceX did not fall within the NMB's jurisdiction because Congress never granted the agency jurisdiction over commercial space transportation. This is because, unlike commercial airlines that serve the general public, SpaceX provides rides only to a limited group of hand-picked customers.Yet in January, the NMB ruled in SpaceX's favour, saying the company falls under its jurisdiction because "space transport includes air travel" to reach outer space and because the company's website allows anyone to email it to purchase a trip.In December 2025, the NLRB abandoned another Biden-era case against SpaceX, in which the agency had alleged that terms in the company's severance and arbitration agreements, including confidentiality rules, were illegally coercive.While the NLRB's recent reversal is likely to resolve SpaceX's ongoing lawsuit against the agency, the labour board still faces other constitutional challenges. Since SpaceX filed its lawsuit in 2024, other companies, including Amazon, have also filed similar cases, several of which are now pending in US courts.The fired engineers have also sued SpaceX and Musk for sexual harassment and retaliation under California law. The lawsuit alleges that some plaintiffs received harassing comments from coworkers that "mimicked Musk's posts" on social media and "created a wildly uncomfortable, hostile work environment."In December 2025, SpaceX asked a federal appeals court to compel arbitration of that case after a lower court refused.