Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Latest media response to NLRB law-inventing

The uproar over the National Labor Relations Board creating law that rewards the Obama administration's favored caste, Big Labor.

From Forbes:

Barack Obama has already given his potential 2012 opponents a litany of abuses against the free-market with which to rail about. But his administration's latest foray into the labor markets may be the most egregious example. It centers on an intrusion into the economy that reeks of central planning.

Last month the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Boeing. The company's transgression? Building a second line of its 787 Dreamliners at a plant in North Charleston, S.C., rather than its original plant north of Seattle. Washington is a unionized state and South Carolina isn’t. The aerospace giant's decision to expand across the country was based in part on lower labor costs, the Palmetto State's competitive advantage as a right-to-work state.

The flow of jobs to these states from heavily unionized ones is old news, but the NLRB is desperate to discredit this colossal example as a discrimination case. General Counsel Lafe Soloman's complaint accuses Boeing of violating federal labor law because its "statements were coercive to employees and its actions were motivated by a desire to retaliate for past strikes and chill future strike activity." In return, the NLRB wants the planes built in Washington, where the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (which filed the original complaint) represents its employees.

It's probably a surprise to most that an autonomous federal agency has jurisdiction over investigating private-sector labor practices. Its cases are heard internally before an administrative law judge, which are then reviewable by its board. Since taking office Obama has wired the NLRB with union disciples: Solomon is an agency careerist who was a recess nomination, as were board members Craig Becker (former general counsel of the SEIU) and Mark Pearce (Buffalo labor lawyer who argued before the NLRB). His chair Wilma Liebman is a former Teamsters attorney serving her third term on the board. The sacrificial Republican is Brian Hayes, a former top labor policy aide in the Senate. Obama's configuration of the NLRB has put it in a position to do Big Labor's bidding.
The Hill:

A pair of prominent Republican senators is firing back against a couple of recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions.

Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina plan to introduce legislation this week that would strengthen the protection of right-to-work laws, which say that employees cannot be required to join a union. Such laws are currently on the books in more than 20 states.

The measure is a response to a couple of recent decisions from the NLRB, which filed a complaint against Boeing for moving a second production line from a union plant in Washington state to a non-union facility in South Carolina.

The board also has signaled that it will push forward with lawsuits against Arizona and South Dakota over state constitutional amendments that say workers can form unions only through secret ballot elections.
The Washington Times:

It's hard to understand why the firm doesn’t flee the Evergreen State entirely in favor of a more friendly right-to-work production centers. In fact, Boeing officials are quick to note they have done nothing to hurt the union. "We haven't taken any jobs away from the IAM in Seattle," Mr. Neale explained. "What we've done in South Carolina is add new production capacity." Lafe Solomon, Mr. Obama's pick for the general counsel job at NLRB, doesn't see it that way. He essentially charged management with thought crime for complaining about the negative business impact of "strikes happening every three to four years in Puget Sound." These statements, according to the NLRB filing, constituted "interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights" under labor law. Mr. Solomon is demanding that Boeing officials issue a formal apology and move all 787 production from South Carolina to Washington state.

Attorneys general in nine right-to-work states blasted the unelected bureaucrat in a letter last week. "This unparalleled and overreaching action seeks to drive a stake through the heart of the free enterprise system," they wrote. Yet that's not even the worst of NRLB’s latest misdeeds. The board has announced it will sue the states of Arizona and South Dakota after voters in November approved ballot measures guaranteeing the right of citizens to secret ballots in union elections. NRLB goons aren’t just opposed to free enterprise and free speech, they're attacking the democratic process itself.

The full NRLB board still needs to act before any sanctions can be imposed on Boeing, but the firm should never have been placed in the position of defending its right to choose where it does business. Earlier this year, House Republicans attempted to slice $50 million from NLRB’s $280 million budget. In tight fiscal times, it makes no sense for taxpayers to continue subsidizing thuggery.
The Herald of Everett, Washington:

A complaint against the Boeing Co., by the National Labor Relations Board is based on "misquotations and mischaracterizations," the company said in a response Tuesday.

In late April, the labor board's general counsel accused Boeing of retaliating against its Machinists union in the Puget Sound area when it selected South Carolina for a second 787 production line in 2009. The Machinists had staged a 57-day strike against Boeing the previous year. The labor board cited several statements by Boeing officials as evidence the company was punishing its employees here for work stoppages.

"A number of these statements, which are critical to your case against Boeing, fundamentally misquote or mischaracterize statements by Boeing executives and actions taken by the company," wrote J. Michael Luttig, Boeing's general counsel, in a response downloaded Tuesday from Scribd, a document sharing site. The company acknowledged the letter was authentic.

The errors have "done a grave disservice" to the company and its shareholders, Luttig wrote.
The Washington Examiner:

Boeing on Tuesday sent a letter to the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, blasting him for making false accusations about the company's decision to build a non-union factory in South Carolina, which an NLRB complaint charges is illegal.

Back in October 2009, Boeing announced plans to build the plant to service a backlog of orders after talks broke down with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

In a complaint written by general counsel Lafe Solomon last month, the NLRB argued that the move to South Carolina was retaliatory, and advocated the extreme remedy of moving the production line to Washington – even though Boeing has already constructed the new facility and hired 1,000 workers.

Boeing is calling for the complaint to be withdrawn and, in its letter today, argues that a number of statements Solomon made in the media were incorrect.

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