Hit up the Labor Secretary's cellphone, Elon.
"Let me put it this way. I would love to have a conversation with Mr. Musk and talk about anything he would like to talk about. Certainly it's a big company in the United States of America, and a very innovative company in the United States of America. I am willing to have a conversation with anybody," U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said on Yahoo Finance Live.
What marks the first public olive branch by the Biden administration to connect with the outspoken Musk comes after another interesting week for the Tesla CEO.
Musk — for a while a vocal critic of unions and the UAW — opened the door for a union vote at Tesla. The electric vehicle maker is famously non-union.
"I'd like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them," Musk said in a tweet.
Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!
I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
The Tesla founder's tweet followed President Biden's praise during his State of the Union Address of Ford and General Motors (which are unionized) for their electric vehicle efforts. Musk has also bristled at not being invited to the Biden-led White House, with the latter reportedly concerned on how a meeting would go.
Walsh — long a supporter of unions — said Tesla workers should be allowed to unionize if that's what they want.
"If the workers at Tesla want to get unionized, they should be. I would hope that Elon Musk would respect their right," Walsh added.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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