Class politics makes for strange bedfellows, and nowhere is that truer than in the current attack led by Elon Musk and the putatively progressive grocery chain, Trader Joe’s, on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The decades-long fight to tear down the regulatory state by way of the courts has intensified in recent years thanks to the rightward swing of the Supreme Court and the legions of Donald Trump–appointed judges at lower levels. We haven’t actually seen an increase in union density, yet employers, irked by rising public favorability toward unions, have turned to litigation to quash worker organizing. The Biden administration’s unusually pro-worker NLRB, led by General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, has proven an obstacle to employers despite being weakened by underfunding, so much so that it can barely conduct basic functions and staff field operations.

So employers have set their sights on dismantling the board entirely.