Musk has previously bragged that employee stock awards helped fend off unionization efforts in Tesla factories.

Indeed, Tesla is currently the only major American automaker whose workforce isn't represented by a union. Musk's strategy has previously been to pay employees much lower salaries than other American auto companies, offset with those Tesla stock awards.

Now that employee stock holdings are in the toilet, the leverage Musk once had over his laborers is quickly slipping through his fingers. The deeper Tesla's stocks plummet, the closer Musk pushes his underpaid workforce toward the bargaining table — which would be a huge cut to his own personal fortune.

But that's something only Tesla's employees can decide. In the meantime, calls on Musk to step down as Tesla CEO are only getting louder.