Elon Musk interviews CNBC from Tesla’s headquarters in Texas.
CNBC
The day before Tesla’s Based on the quarterly earnings report, a coalition of labor unions and corporate watchdog groups hopes investors will focus on governance issues.
On Tuesday, groups including the American Federation of Teachers and Public Citizen launched the “Take Back Tesla” website. The campaign is asking shareholders to vote against a new pay package for CEO Elon Musk, which would give him roughly $1 trillion worth of stock and give him greater control over the company.
Tesla’s board released a salary proposal in September, saying the largest-ever CEO pay plan was appropriate and necessary to lock in Musk for 10 years. The plan will be put to a shareholder vote at the company’s annual general meeting next month.
On its Take Back Tesla website, the group called the oversized package “outrageous” in part because Musk’s “political activities have tarnished Tesla’s brand and distracted from Tesla’s leadership.” The site said the plan does not require Musk to focus on automakers over political interests or other business activities.
The site also urges the public to petition the state treasurer and other financial officials who oversee funds on behalf of workers and retirees to reject the plan. The coalition will share materials online teaching investors how to vote stocks and how to influence fund managers who vote on their behalf.
“Public pension funds are significant shareholders in Tesla, and the asset managers that invest those funds hold even larger stakes,” the site says. “It’s our money, and we should tell the people who invest on our behalf to vote to hold Mr. Musk and Tesla’s board members accountable.”
Other groups in the coalition include Americans for Financial Reform, Communications Workers of America, corporate watchdog group ECHO, People’s Action, and Stop the Money Pipeline.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Major voting firms ISS and Glass Lewis recommended against approval of Musk’s $1 trillion compensation plan, which was unveiled amid a tense dispute over his previous pay package in 2018, which included about $56 billion in stock at vesting.
In response to these companies’ proposals, Tesla said in a post: “ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended against Tesla’s proposals multiple times since the 2018 CEO Performance Awards were introduced.” The company added that selling shareholders “missed out on our company’s market capitalization, which soared 20 times from March 2018 to August 2025.”
The Delaware Court of Chancery ruled early last year that the 2018 plan was improperly authorized by Tesla, with the judge finding that the company hid key details from shareholders and that Mr. Musk controlled board members without negotiating with shareholders for a fair deal.
Musk has appealed the matter to the Delaware Supreme Court, seeking reinstatement of his 2018 CEO pay package.
Around the time this plan was scrapped, in January 2024, Musk wrote on his social network The new plan would see him add 12% to his stake over the next 10 years.
Musk had already launched the artificial intelligence startup xAI in March 2023 with several former Tesla employees and was developing Grok, a potential challenger to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Musk said he is committed to running Tesla for at least five more years by May 2025.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who oversees the $300 billion pension fund, “vocally opposes this pay structure” and said other public trustees should do the same.
“We’ve held Tesla stock for most of our time, and it’s been a solid investment that has grown over time, which is why we chose not to let it go,” Lander, who also serves as the city’s finance and accountability director, said in an interview. Lander said it would be preferable to “put it on hold and engage in dialogue with shareholders to address the concerns that we have.”
Mr. Lander manages a fund that owns about $1.1 billion worth of Tesla stock, based on holdings reported in August.
He said he believes there is “insufficient independence” on Tesla’s board, which allows Musk to be an “absentee CEO.” Lander said the company has also missed its goals with robotaxi and self-driving technology.
The company’s stock has rebounded recently after a rough start to the year, but as of 2025 it still underperforms tech stocks, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq.
Lander said Musk is an “inconsistent CEO at best,” adding, “After the volatile stock market and the destruction of consumer confidence, this pay structure is like holding the company to ransom.”
Tesla is scheduled to release third-quarter results after the close of regular trading on Wednesday. Analysts expect sales to increase 4.7% from a year ago to $26.37 billion, which would be the second straight year-over-year decline, according to LSEG.
Spotted: Former Tesla board member on Musk
