http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/apr/21/nlrb-suit-against-boeing-asks-return-of-state-jobs/

In an obvious case of the Obama Administration pandering to its union-based financiers, the NLRB has files a complaint against Boeing, who is establishing a second 787 'Dreamliner' assembly plant in South Carolina.  The SC plant is nonunion, its workers having voted out their union right before Boeing announced the plan to build 787's there.

The NLRB filing would have you think that the Federal Government has the right to stop the plant's construction because it might hurt the prospects of unionized (IAM) workers at the original 787 manufacturing site in Washington state.

What a colossal waste of scarce government dollars.  The IAM and Boeing are in no ongoing labor negotiations, and Boeing is fully within its rights to relocate operations anywhere it darn well pleases.  And the IAM is completely within its rights to attempt to organize the South Carolina plant, too.  (Note the IAM used to represent workers there, and they decertified their own union in 2009)

The NLRB will lose this case and all that will have been accomplished is millions of government dollars will have been wasted on this frivolity.

Just another case of the totalitarian streak of the "Democratic" Party.  No doubt part of a quid pro quo to score union campaign contributions in next year's election.





NLRB suit against Boeing asks return of state jobs
The Seattle Times

Thursday, April 21, 2011

SEATTLE — Boeing was retaliating illegally against its largest union when it decided in 2009 to put a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in a nonunion plant in South Carolina, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged in a complaint filed Wednesday.

To remedy the alleged violation, the complaint says, Boeing should be ordered to operate the second line at a union plant in Washington.

Boeing said it would “vigorously contest� the case and proceed with plans to start assembling planes in Charleston, S.C., in July. “This doesn’t change anything,� spokesman Tim Neale said.

The South Carolina plant could be operating for years before the dispute is decided, a labor-law expert said.

“This process can take a long, long time to play out,� said Ross Runkel, a professor emeritus of law at Oregon’s Willamette University and labor-law specialist.

The first step in that process — a hearing in Seattle before an administrative-law judge — is scheduled June 14.

NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon filed the complaint after a yearlong investigation of an unfair-labor practices charge brought in March 2010 by Seattle-based International Association of Machinists District 751, the largest union at Boeing.

The IAM said Boeing was retaliating for a 2008 strike, and seeking to discourage potential future strikes, when it chose to locate the second line in Charleston rather than in the Puget Sound area.

Well, for sure!  Boing would never try to retaliate against the union!!!

Well, for sure!  Boing would never try to retaliate against the union!!!


Oh I would not call this retaliation.  They needed to build a second production line and they chose to put it in South Carolina.

And before we look to castigate Boeing for their actions let's not forget the IAM workers in Washington who launched their strike back in '08 (which allegedly started this whole brouhaha) without regard to the collateral damage to other Boeing workers.

If you listen to the NLRB, any company that has a union, I suppose, can no longer build facilities in right-to-work states.

Besides if there was any retaliation at all, I imagine it would be the former members of the IAM in South Carolina, who voted to decertify their own union and then later scored the new 787 plant. Not a whole lot of solidarity there...

This whole episode shows (a) Why private sector unions are losing, and (b) the depths of desperation of the Obama Administration to cater to what's left of the labor movement for votes and contributions.