Marathon Pundit: June's first NLRB overreach roundup

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

June's first NLRB overreach roundup

Boeing headquarters, Chicago

A new month, a new collection of NLRB overreach stories.

From The Hill:

Critics of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) lawsuit against airplane manufacturer Boeing denounced President Obama's choice of a member of the airline's board of directors to be secretary of Commerce.

On Tuesday, Obama tapped businessman John Bryson to replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whom Obama nominated to be ambassador to China. Locke is replacing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who is anticipated to make a run for the 2012 GOP nomination to challenge Obama next year.

Bryson, 67, is a member of the board of directors of Boeing, which the NLRB has sued for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787-model airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a "right to work" state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

The conservative Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) said Monday afternoon that Boeing's decision must be OK if Obama thinks a member of its board of directors should be in his Cabinet.

And now for something completely different. From The Hill:

Conservative critics of the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing hammered President Obama Tuesday for picking a Commerce secretary who sits on the company's board of directors, but the White House said that service is part of what makes him qualified for the job.

NLRB critics have argued the panel's lawsuit against Boeing should be dropped since Obama has tapped businessman John Bryson to be the next Commerce secretary. Bryson, 67, is a member of the Boeing board of directors.

But White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that Bryson's tenure on the Boeing board was apart of the "diversity of his experience" that appealed to the president.

"He served on the board at Boeing. He served on — he serves on the board at Disney," Carney said. "These are obviously companies that do a lot of international business."

The Sun News:

The nomination of John Bryson, a 16-year member of the Boeing board of directors and former chief executive officer of California-based Edison International, marks the third time the president has tapped a Boeing executive for his administration.

Because of Bryson's connections, Gov. Nikki Haley and some state lawmakers want Bryson to intervene on behalf of the Obama administration in the dispute between Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board centered on the aviation giant's decision to locate an assembly line in North Charleston, and not in Washington state. The complaint contends that a 2008 union strike at a Washington facility led to the decision to build in South Carolina.

Haley argues that the lawsuit could weaken the state's anti-union stances and be harmful to economic development in America.

"The governor hopes Mr. Bryson's first order of business will be to tell the president that, if he is serious about creating jobs and growing our economy, he must forcefully weigh in and get the NLRB to drop their frivolous and costly lawsuit against Boeing," Haley's press secretary Rob Godfrey said in a statement.

And finally, from The Hill:

key South Carolina senator predicted Tuesday that the tenure of President Obama's choice to be Commerce secretary at Boeing will be a topic of conversation when his nomination is debated.

A spokesman for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that when the chamber has to vote on businessman John Bryson's nomination to replace Gary Locke, Republican lawmakers would likely look to make a point about the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against labor strikes by building a new plant in South Carolina.

"In light of the NLRB's unprecedented complaint against Boeing, one would expect that Mr. Bryson's service on the company's Board of Directors when they created the second 787 assembly line in South Carolina will be discussed at-length during confirmation," Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said in a statement.

Bishop pointed out that White House Chief of Staff William Daley is also a former member of Boeing's Board of Directors. The company's president, Jim McNerney, is the chairman of President Obama's Export Council, Bishop said.