Marathon Pundit: More media scolding of NLRB for inventing labor law in Boeing case

Thursday, April 28, 2011

More media scolding of NLRB for inventing labor law in Boeing case

There is yet more reaction to the NLRB invention of a law that prevents Boeing from building the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina, a right to work state.

Forbes:

Sometimes by favoring a narrow constituency, the federal government can cause economic devastation for a company or a state and even encourage companies to manufacture outside the United States. In terms of sheer economic stupidity, the Obama Administration committed an economic felony when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Boeing to shutter a spanking new $2 billion facility that would have created 1,000 much-needed new jobs in South Carolina.

Last week, the NLRB told Boeing that it could not open the facility it had spent three years creating to build its new Dreamliner series of airplanes. The NLRB did not deem the plant unsafe or harmful to South Carolina workers. The NLRB simply said that it could block Boeing from using the new plant as Boeing's decision to locate it in South Carolina was in part based on a desire to avoid work stoppages and strikes, and this rationale was harmful to unions and thus an illegal act.

Never before has the federal government told a company it may not relocate within the United States. Never before has the statute used been interpreted to affect a decision on where a product is made. Never before has the Constitutional goal of easing interstate commerce been so trampled by a formal act of the federal government.

This outrageous overreach is unacceptable and will certainly be overturned in time by the federal courts. But the process may take years, and meanwhile a great American company – and one of our nation’s largest exporters – will be hurt irreparably. Imagine the Boeing customers abroad who placed firm orders awaiting their new planes; Airbus must be getting lots of calls and new orders thanks to this decision.

Fox News:

Unions are getting a boost from recent activity by the National Labor Relations Board, the executive-branch agency charged with regulating labor disputes. Last week, Acting NLRB General Counsel Lafe Solomon, an Obama appointee, issued a complaint against aircraft maker Boeing after the company decided to locate a new plant in South Carolina because it is a "right to work" state in which workers can't be required to join a union as a condition of having a job at a unionized workplace.

In opposing the plans, Solomon said, "A worker's right to strike is a fundamental right."

Boeing has spent three years preparing to open the $2 billion facility that would reportedly create 1,000 jobs there. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley says she'll fight to make sure that doesn't change. "We are not going to get bullied by the unions one more day," she told reporters.