Nine AGs battle NLRB over unions

Attorney Generals in 9 states fired off a letter to the National Labor Relations Board calling a complaint it filed against Boeing for opening a production facility in South Carolina an assault on their states’ economies. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers complained to the board claiming Boeing participated in unfair labor practices by threatening to open new, non-union facilities elsewhere when workers went on strike at the company’s Washington state production facility in 2008.

This summer, Boeing is scheduled to open its new production line of 787 in South Carolina, a “right-to-work” state, in which employee’s can’t be forced to join a union to work at unionized plants. In Washington state and the 28 states without “right-to-work” laws, once a majority of workers have opted to join a union, everyone can be required to join and pay dues. That gives labor groups an advantage in organizing.

“This complaint represents an assault upon the constitutional right of free speech, and the ability of our states to create jobs and recruit industry. Your ill-conceived retaliatory action seeks to destroy our citizens’ right to work,” the letter from the attorneys general reads. Fox News

The complaint from the NLRB tries to keep Boeing from building 787 airliners in the Palmetto State plant, not shut it down. But the company designed the facility to produce three of those type of airplanes each month. And many have called the NLRB action unprecedented, while South Carolina officials say the action could stymie growth. Attorneys general from Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma joined South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson in signing Thursday’s letter to voice their concerns that NLRB interference could hinder economic growth in their states too.

“Our states are struggling to emerge from one of the worst economic collapses since the Depression. Your complaint further impairs an economic recovery,” the letter says. “Intrusion by the federal bureaucracy on behalf of unions will not create a single new job or put one unemployed person back to work.” Fox News

But the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers insists its filed the complaint out of legitimate concern that Boeing’s new plant is aimed at union busting. Meanwhile Boeing claims it has created 2000 jobs at its Seattle area site since it announced it would build the South Carolina Facility and that the 1,000 new jobs there won’t take anything from workers in Washington state.

Read the full letter