Marathon Pundit: Boeing-NLRB overreach, William Daley edition

Friday, June 17, 2011

Boeing-NLRB overreach, William Daley edition

First a Chicago touch. President Obama's chief of staff and former Boeing board member William Daley was interviewed by the Washington Post about the NLRB overreach in the South Carolina case:

Daley said he did not have many good answers, appearing to throw up his hands in frustration at what he called "bureaucratic stuff that's hard to defend."

"Sometimes you can't defend the indefensible," he said.

Charles Krauthammer:

But Democratic fealty to unions does not stop there. Boeing has just completed a production facility in South Carolina for its new 787 Dreamliner. The National Labor Relations Board, stacked with Democrats – including one former union lawyer considered so partisan that he required a recess appointment after the Senate refused to confirm him – is trying to get the plant declared illegal. Why? Because by choosing right-to-work South Carolina, Boeing is accused of retaliating against its unionized Washington state workers for previous strikes.

In fact, Boeing has increased unionized employment by more than 2,000 at its Puget Sound plant. Moreover, the idea that a company in a unionized state can thus be prohibited from expanding into right-to-work states by a partisan regulatory body is quite insane. It violates the fundamental principle in a free-market economy that companies can move and build in response to market conditions, rather than administrative fiat. It jeopardizes the economic recovery, not only targeting America's single largest exporter in its attempt to compete with Airbus for a huge global market, but also threatening any other company that might think of expanding in any way displeasing to unions and their NLRB patrons.

Obama has been utterly silent in the Boeing affair. Which is understood by all as tacit approval. He's facing re-election next year. And Democrats need unions.

The Island Packet:

The government lawyer seeking, in effect, to shut down Boeing Co.’s brand-new aircraft assembly plant in North Charleston is flying into South Carolina today.

It's not shaping up to be a hospitable visit.

Lafe Solomon, the acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, is one of the star witnesses set to appear at a congressional field hearing starting at high noon, not far from the $750 million Boeing factory at Charleston International Airport.

He's likely to face some hostile questions.

AP:

A congressional panel is holding a hearing in South Carolina on a National Labor Relations Board complaint against aircraft manufacturer Boeing over a non-union jet assembly line built in the state.

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government convenes Friday in North Charleston with four GOP committee members.

Gov. Nikki Haley and the NLRB's chief attorney will testify. A judge in Seattle is hearing the complaint, but the committee is investigating what was behind it.

Are Democrats getting desperate? From AP again:

Two ranking Democrats say a labor board attorney shouldn't have to testify about an ongoing lawsuit over South Carolina's Boeing plant.

U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings and George Miller said Thursday in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa that it was unethical to call on National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to answer questions about the agency's case against Boeing.

Solomon reluctantly agreed to appear Friday at a hearing of Issa's U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in North Charleston.

The NLRB says Boeing broke the law when it built a non-union passenger jet assembly line in South Carolina as retaliation against unionized Washington state workers.

The attorney general of Texas weighs in:

At a time when 13.9 million Americans are still unemployed, the NLRB is threatening to discourage economic development and job growth nationwide. If the NLRB is successful, existing employers in union states could face federal "retaliation" charges simply because they expand manufacturing capacity — and create jobs — in right-to-work states like Texas.

But as our brief explains, the NLRB's proposal is not just harmful to Texas and other right-to-work states. It also poses a significant threat to heavily unionized states like Washington and Michigan. As the Detroit News recently put it in an editorial lambasting the NLRB's proposal, "What new firm would invest in Michigan knowing that its union could then block its expansion to a less unionized state?"

The Boeing case offers a vivid example of what happens when too much power is entrusted to federal bureaucrats who are more committed to advancing ideological agendas than encouraging job growth. In January, President Obama promised to eradicate needless federal regulations that stifle economic opportunity. We have yet to see any real results. Reining-in the NLRB would be a good start.

One more time from AP:

The chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp. said Thursday that Boeing Co. will ultimately prevail in its battle with the National Labor Relations Board over the plane-maker’s decision to build a non-union production line in South Carolina.

At an investor analyst conference, Chief Financial Officer Greg Hayes said unions and their political allies are on the losing side of the argument.

Boeing made a "pretty smart management judgment" to establish two plants to deal with capacity problems "and it's hard for me to imagine that the courts would ultimately force them to move all their production to one facility."