March 3 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Thursday he was inviting labor union United Auto Workers (UAW) to hold a vote at the electric carmaker's California factory.

The announcement comes as the billionaire entrepreneur criticized the Biden administration and Democrats for a proposal to give union-made, U.S.-built electric vehicles an additional $4,500 tax incentive. Tesla and foreign automakers do not have unions at their U.S. factories. read more

Organizing a Tesla plant would be a major victory for the UAW, which has largely failed to win the backing of workers at foreign-owned automakers' or EV startups' assembly plants, many of which are in the U.S. South. Tesla also has a plant in Austin, Texas.

In his tweet on Thursday, Musk said the real challenge was the negative unemployment in Bay Area, and not compensating people well would make them leave as they have many offers.

"I'd like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them," he said.

UAW did not have an immediate comment about Musk's tweet, but analysts said his actions over the past year do not match the rhetoric.

Musk has also faced the ire of U.S. National Labor Relations Board, which last year ruled the company violated U.S. labor law and ordered Tesla to direct him to delete a 2018 tweet saying employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union. read more

Tesla subsequently appealed the NLRB ruling...

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