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Comment by celeritascelery | Hacker News Reader

Caveat that I know very little about these labor relations laws. However from what I gathered from the article some entities like airlines and railroads are regulated differently than normal companies because they provide movement for essential goods. This means it involves more steps to go on strike etc. And now spaceX is considered to be one of those types of companies. As rocketry because more critical for our space infrastructure, I feel like this makes sense.

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> As rocketry [becomes] more critical for our space infrastructure, I feel like this makes sense.

The justification for denying workers rights they would otherwise have was the extreme importance of moving essential goods. We're not going to have famines if SpaceX has a month long strike.

Not yet, at least not until the space rock mining begins.

Not then either, unless you like eating space rocks.

There could be a world where mineral supplies are exhausted/inaccessible to the point that extraterrestrial metals are needed to maintain the supply chains we need to feed billions of people.

Edit to say - that's probably a long way off / not likely

There could be a world where the muon radiation fallout of WWIV has contaminated all unmined terrestrial mineral sources.

> There could be a world where the muon radiation fallout of WWIV has contaminated all unmined terrestrial mineral sources.

All unmined terrestrial mineral sources? I don't know what the heck you're talking about, but that sounds like a world where everyone's dead. Pretty sure all the bomb shelters in the world are shallower than the deepest mine.

for all that elon is quite horrible by times, spacex is a meritocracy (that is hiring), and you have exactly one right in a meritocracy, which is to work harder and smarter. I feel that companys must be allowed to set up as meritocracys,(spitballing)for which I would add one twist, that they MUST hire a certain proportion of new people, on a first come first serve basis ie: anyone can give it a go, once.

> We're not going to have famines if SpaceX has a month long strike.

But Ukrainian soldiers can and will die on the battlefield if Starlink has issues. We already know that it is vital for the Russians because their battle plans fell apart once SpaceX, the US and the Ukrainian government finally introduced a whitelist for terminals allowed to connect on Ukrainian soil. And SpaceX IIRC also operates a separate Starlink system for the US military.

This didn't pose an issue in the past because the DoD ran stuff on its own, no third party companies required... but heh, privatization rules...

There are also paths for the government to deny labor rights for military reasons.

That will come as well, this was just easier to do.

SpaceX is one of the few companies left that China isn't able to copy.

Yet

They have. https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/china-showcases-new-mo...

Nope

This is the key passage. That may be true at some point, but it isn't now:

> The filing also disputed SpaceX’s argument that it is a “carrier by air transporting mail for or under contract with the United States Government.” Evidence presented by SpaceX shows only that it carried SpaceX employee letters to the crew of the International Space Station and “crew supplies provided for by the US government in its contracts with SpaceX to haul cargo to the ISS,” the filing said. “They do not show that the government has contracted with SpaceX as a ‘mail carrier.’”

> SpaceX’s argument “is rife with speculation regarding its plans for the future,” the ex-employees’ attorneys told the NMB. “One can only surmise that the reason for its constant reference to its future intent to develop its role as a ‘common carrier’ is the lack of current standing in that capacity.” The filing said Congress would have to add space travel to the Railway Labor Act’s jurisdiction in order for SpaceX to be considered a common carrier.

IIRC, SpaceX and some of their suppliers were considered essential personnel during the early covid lockdowns.

Because they were essential?

Or because SpaceX is run by someone who doesn't care if his workers die, is a Covid denying crank and has connections in the Trump admin?

IIRC, at the time they were the only US option to get people to and from the space station.

Same for ULA but afaik they still have a functional union

So were the folks at my local subway.

All ‘essential’ meant in this context was ‘gets screwed’.

Rockets do not move essential goods. This feels like a oligarchy giveaway to Elon more than anything.

I believe that SpaceX launches and operates satellites for the Department of Defense, which regards both its communications and surveillance satellites as 'essential goods'.

SpaceX rockets move goods essential to our astronauts, DoD missions, and even our foreign policy via Starlink. I’ll go out on a limb and say you’d be unhappy if Elon cut Ukraine’s Starlink access and restored Russia’s, right?

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