> But Tesla could outright refuse under any circumstances to give stock options to unionized employees, no?

Not sure what the laws are. There might be laws saying that you can't discriminate against people in unions, so in order not to hand stock options to unionized employees, they might have to withhold stock options from all employees?

(No clue, just speculating.)

> But Tesla could outright refuse under any circumstances to give stock options to unionized employees, no?

I mean yes. And then a union could strike. At which point elon would have a decision to make: is proving a dumb point worth his business?

> Also FWIW Musk clarified

Presumably on lawyers advice.

> no UAW employees have stock options at any other company.

But that,as others have explained, isn't relevant. Nothing stops the Tesla union from maintaining those perks, and options aren't valuable at most auto companies anyway, so aiming for different perks is superior.