In a recent open letter, Twitter employees rattled off a list of demands for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as his takeover of the company was being finalized.
Among the demands was that workers “be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” according to TIME, which exclusively reported on the letter three days before Musk’s acquisition closed on Oct. 27.
Workers called for a reversal of Musk’s reported plan to lay off three-quarters of Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce. It said the threat of such a deep cut is a “transparent act of worker intimidation,” adding that it would impact access to “essential healthcare” and put visa-holding employees in danger of being deported.
While cuts are still expected, Musk recently told Twitter employees they won’t be as severe as 75 percent, according to Bloomberg.
Musk delisted Twitter from the stock market, a move that will give the controversial billionaire more personal control over the now-private company. The social media site’s nine-member board of directors is expected to dissolve, with Musk likely to appoint a new board of his friends and investors, according to the Times.
In their letter, Twitter employees also demanded that Musk “explicitly commit” to preserving their benefits, particularly remote work.
Musk earlier this year cracked down on remote work in his other companies, telling workers at Tesla and SpaceX their days of working from home were over, according to the New York Times. Now-fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees this summer they could work from home “forever,” Forbes reported.
Workers also called for leadership to “not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs.”
TIME noted that it isn’t clear how many Twitter employees signed the letter.
About 530 Twitter employees have left the company in the last three months as the drama of Musk’s acquisition unfolded, according to Insider.
