Twitter employees are circulating an open letter to Elon Musk asking him not to fire them, after the tech mogul said he planned to terminate a significant portion of the staff if he takes over the company, Time reported Monday.
Musk promised Thursday to fire almost 75% of the social media company’s 7,500 employees if he closes a deal to become its sole owner, claiming the company’s staff is bloated and excessively left-wing. Musk is still feuding with Twitter’s leadership on a $44 billion deal. Musk’s lawyers claimed earlier this month that Twitter has refused to accept Musk’s bid. (RELATED: Biden Admin Looking For Legal Loophole To Perform National Security Review On Elon Musk)
“Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” the letter read. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.”
Twitter staff call Elon Musk’s plan to fire 75% of workforce as ‘reckless’
Here’s their open letter sent to Twitter’s board of directors and Elon Musk https://t.co/9drDvsTWka pic.twitter.com/WpMbRDmn0i
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) October 25, 2022
“We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.”
The demands made in the letter include preserving the number of employees currently working at the company, not discriminating on the basis of political orientation, and ensuring fair severance policies.
However, it is unclear how many of Twitter’s employees are on board with the letter. The writers said signatures would not be released publicly unless they had “a critical mass” of signatories from within the company.
Employees at Musk’s company SpaceX sent a letter in June criticizing Musk for his behavior on Twitter. The employees were promptly fired.