Elon Musk has not yet closed the Twitter deal, but his possible takeover of the company has created a sense of fear among the employees. The Washington Post already reported that Musk wants to fire 75% of current employees after taking over the company. While the company says the news is all rumors, employees have the right to be worried about their future in this messy economic condition. Twitter currently has 7,500 employees, and Musk allegedly wants to fire around 5,600 of them. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has already requested some top executives to leave the company. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation. We cannot do our work in an environment of constant harassment and threats.” employees wrote in their letter.
Musk must complete the acquisition by Friday
The court already postponed Musk and Twitter face-off to October 28, and the billionaire still has a few days to complete the deal. If both sides fail to reach an agreement, the Delaware court ruling determines the company’s owner. The employees have listed their demands to the “current and future leadership” of the company, which includes respect, safety, protection, and dignity. The protesters are asking Musk to preserve the current headcount. The future owner should also “does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs.” Protecting the employees’ benefits listed in the merger agreement and transparent, prompt, and thoughtful communication around our working conditions are other requests by Twitter employees. Additionally, the employees say they want to be “treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires.” Reducing the number of employees from the current 7,500 to less than 2,000 will certainly affect the company’s operations, and it’s not yet clear how Musk wants to deal with that.
