If Musk becomes the head government spending slasher, will he bring automation along for the ride?

Earlier this month, candidate Donald Trump announced that, if elected in November, he would appoint Elon Musk to lead a new commission empowered to overhaul government efficiency.

There are two reasons SMART-TD members across all crafts should be concerned about this pledge.

Musk is an alleged union buster

The mutual admiration between the two men is based, in part, on Musk’s open contempt for organized labor and an established history of employee abuse. Consider this exchange from their infamous August 2024 interview on “a platform formerly known as Twitter before Musk took over and sacked most of the staff.”

The quote may refer to union-busting activities at SpaceX, which follow years of failed attempts to replace his Tesla factory workers with robots – an ongoing project and perhaps a personal obsession for Musk. This brings us to the second worry for workers everywhere.

Musk hates paying for human workers

We need to eat and sleep. Sometimes we think about things that don’t serve Mr. Musk. How could his ascension as a future Trump administration’s Emperor of Efficiency not have a profound impact on transit and rail workers?

His influence would accelerate deregulation, especially in vital agencies with transportation oversight such as the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration while pushing for fast-track adoption of driverless electric buses, trains, and freight vehicles — all conveniently produced by one or more of his companies. Robots don’t cash paychecks, and they don’t need pensions. So much for crew size regulations, and why not say farewell to those Railroad Retirement Board pensions while we’re at it? Musk loves to cut costs and doesn’t mind cutting his workers off in the process because employees cost money. It’s his hallmark.

Disrupting an entire economy causes collapse

What about safety? If the rocket blows up, he’ll build another one. Otherwise, the free market can tend to itself, never you mind how it always plays out when one fox appoints another to oversee the hen house.

The signs are already there from former Musk associates.

Recent attempts by Parallel Systems, a company led by former SpaceX engineers, have tried to gain waivers from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to test autonomous freight cars.

It was obvious to SMART-TD officers who observed that the autonomous freight cars would be incredibly dangerous to anyone working in proximity to them. The FRA has yet to make their final decision.

SMART-TD’s written objections to Parallel Systems request.

Fast-tracking fully autonomous freight trains fits perfectly into Musk’s pattern, an opportunity we imagine the Class I railroads can’t wait to exploit.

We know what happens when management or a regulator decides to “disrupt” something they don’t understand so they can drive up their profits. They crash and burn, metaphorically and literally.

We, as one of the largest transportation unions in the country, are obliged to learn about these developments and participate in both the upcoming election and the policymaking process. SMART-TD is steadfast in protecting jobs and ensuring everyone’s safety. Our well-being hangs in the balance.