Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Boeing that the firm cannot open a new factory in a “right to work” state, South Carolina, because the move was undertaken to avoid strikes that plagued the firm’s factory in Puget Sound, Washington. Is this a new departure for the Board, and does it in any way go way beyond its original mandate?
The NLRB was created as an enforcement mechanism of the Wagner Act in July of 1935. That Act restored the balance between business and labor by protecting the right to organize, so that workers who chose to join a union could not be fired at will by anti-union employers. The Board protected the right to organize, and had powers of investigation and enforcement built into it. It became an “unfair labor practice” for employers to interfere with, restrain or coerce workers exercising their right to organize. Employers were now forbidden to discriminate against those workers who decided or wished to join a union. For example, a packing company in Sioux City, Iowa, had to post a sign that “no one will be discharged, demoted, transferred, put on less desirable jobs, or laid off because [a worker] joins Local No. 70 or any other labor organization.” And workers who had lost their jobs for such reasons had to be rehired and paid full back pay.
The Board legalized unions, and brought them into the mainstream of American life. Unfair labor practices were prohibited, and management that sought to ignore or fight unions now had to bargain with them in good faith. The Wagner Act also made “company unions,” mechanisms that the companies created as alternatives to actual worker chosen organizations, essentially illegal. Bargaining representatives were to be chosen by majority rule via votes by members of a plant or factory. Unions then became certified bargaining agents.
It is important to recall all of this, when we survey today’s landscape and see how far organized labor has moved. Card check, which union bosses supported during the last presidential campaign, sought to go way beyond this, by essentially, as Mark Hemingway writes in his very important cover story in The Weekly Standard, giving organizers the power to “form a union by getting workers to sign cards declaring their support for unionization.” No elections to be certified by the NLRB would be necessary, and unions could “identify publicly workers opposed to unionization and use coercive tactics against them.”
The unions were now seeking protection to employ the very same tactics anti-union employers used against them in the 1930s, before the Wagner Act was passed. They were also seeking to in fact undo the secret elections leading to certification they had fought so hard to obtain during the early New Deal years.
Now, recent events reveal that labor, having failed to pass card check for the time being, is trying to use the new pro-union Board stacked with new appointments made by President Obama to hurt business and in effect make fiscally sound business decisions illegal by government fiat. Last Wednesday the NLRB filed a complaint seeking to force Boeing to stop building a new airplane plant near Charleston, South Carolina — a “right to work state” — and to expand the current plant that exists in the state of Washington.
Boeing’s plant is near Puget Sound, and negotiations with the International Association of Machinists collapsed when the union refused to agree to a long-term no strike clause. What Boeing was upset about was that the IAM went on strike four times since 1989, and the company claimed it cost them nearly $2 billion in lost revenue.
The NLRB complaint cites the words of a senior Boeing official, who told The Seattle Times that “we cannot afford to have a work stoppage, you know, every three years.” The plant, however, had been planned for the past two years, and Boeing has already hired one thousand workers who would not have jobs if the company is prohibited from building in South Carolina. So it comes down to whether the union will stop non-union workers from getting a job and earning a living, in order to force Boeing to build and expand next to the plant that already exists in Puget Sound. And, it turns out that at the Puget Sound factory, Boeing has already hired 2000 more workers since October of 2009, even though they had already announced construction of the Charleston plant!
In fact, that Washington plant not only still exists, but is scheduled to assemble seven planes each month compared to three in the new Charleston facility. Yet the union claims that Boeing is “inherently destructive or the rights guaranteed employees” by federal labor law. The union local’s president argued that Boeing was trying “to intimidate our members with the idea that the company would take away their work unless they made concessions at the bargaining table.”
As a former employee of the Boeing Company and currently a stock holder I have input the suggestion and really really hope they decide to move to China.
Including the corporate offices currently in Chicago
Don’t be foolish, China is about to lose it’s price advantage as the dollar drops from excessive money supply (Trillions and Trillions of dollars)outside the US (you’ve heard them squealing about it, they know they are going to lose Trillions in value, and their export economies are going to crash). That means the US is going to have a price advantage for the first time in decades. Keep production here, just put it in a right to work state that will give favors to incoming businesses. America is about to have a price advantage, and the $600 billion trade deficit will be a distant memory when we are enjoying a surplus a decade from now.
This requires a three pronged attack. It needs to begin with Boeing purchasing large tracts of land in Mexico, Canada or China on an airport ground preferably near an airport. It also needs to announce that all future lines will not be assembled in Washington State but in locations in or out of the USA to be announced. New lines include all 787 assembly, 737Neo to replace the 737NG, 767 tanker. They also need to announce that once production run is complete on 737NG, 767-300ER, 777-200 and 300 variants will be closed.
South Carolina needs to sue the Union and the NLRB for tortious interference and a blizzard of other torts. Business taxes need to be applied to all union activity within the State and all union membership needs to be voluntary with dues to be collected directly and voluntarily from the workers, not withheld from paychecks. States Rights needs to be part of the lawsuit. It will get moved to Federal Court but will languish for years.
Finally, DeMint needs to begin to defund and emasculate the NLRB with hearings and legislative restrictions. This should include filibustering all budgetary items that fund the NLRB.
Nice ideas, but they will never happen in Washington. This is a radical – liberal state. Our two senators are the airheads, Maria Cantwell and Patti Murray. God help us.
A little background: Boeing has two commercial aircraft assembly plants in the Puget Sound area; the smaller one in Renton, WA which at this point makes just 737s, and the Everett, WA plant that makes the wide bodies. Boeing just won a knock-down-drag-out political/bidding fight with Airbus to build the next generation air tanker on the otherwise obsolete 767 frame, which will keep the 767 on life support for many years to come. So They will be building 767 tankers, 777s, 787s, and 747s at Everett. Everett’s going to be a very busy place.
This small bit of production in SC is pretty tiny in the overall scheme of things, but it has the machinist worried, because it’s competition, and they don’t want competition.
This really goes back to the merger with McDonnel Douglass, and Boeing ceasing to be a Seattle-centric company, and starting to be an American national company. With no particular loyalty to the Puget Sound area any more, the monopoly that the machinists enjoyed since WWII is faltering. And Boeing has to worry about Airbus, and even the Russian competition. It’s a treacherous business climate, and strikes just aren’t going to be acceptable in the future.
The machinists don’t want to hear that.
what the feds and labor goons fail to consider is the FACT that their simply ain’t no more available land in Everett on which to build a new assembly line. And a NLRB edict will not generate any more, no matter HOW big-headed those clowns get. The reason they BOUGHT the land in Carolina is cause there was lots of it available. I remember the headlines in the local (Olympia, Washington) daily liberal rag.. when Boeing announced plans to establish assembly lines in Carolina rather than here… “Boeing Snubs State Again”… well, now, WHO was snubbing WHOM? What factors FORCED Boeing to relocate? Could it be insane tax levels here in WA? How about unpredictable and greedy unions? Maybe the traffic situation… Boeing have a number of sub-assembl plants scatterd throughout the Puget’s Sound region.. and must move those assemblies to the final assembly lines… on our highways, which are an insane mess. Thousands of needless hours are wated, on the clock, by the drivers moving those large pieces to final assembly lines. Consider the time, funds, “carbon footprint” to do all this…. Boeing made a wise business decision…. the Carolina facility solves ALL those problems and more. Stupid feds, go and spend OUR money solving some problems that exist, rather than manufacturing some out of whole cloth. Defunding the NRLB is a great idea… then the goons working for them will have to find REAL work.. something productive.
There is a much easier approach. Just license the European aircraft conglomerate to make planes for Boeing. End of arguments and battle.
So; Now the “poor” Obama supporter is going to eat all the “rich” in the U.S.?
Great idea! Let them eat all the banks, manufacturers, mortgage companies, and food processing plants. They’ll have to eat the government sooner or later.
How long will it be before they eat everything that they can get sustenance from? Can’t be soon enough for me.
Obama is succeeding in turning his sycophants into rabid cannibals.
Boeing & South Carolina should join forces in filing a federal suit alleging violation of states rights, restraint of trade and free association, against the Obama Administration. And anyone in SC with a hint of mechanical ability or clerical ability should file a class action suit against the NLRB and the IAW for potential lost future wages for the loss of those jobs.
And as stated above, the SC Congressional delegation needs to get to work defunding the NLRB, and/or dissolving it as having outlived it’s usefulness. Good way to balance the budget. . . eliminate agencies that are obsolete and no longer needed, i.e. NLRB, NEA, Dept of Ed, IRS, 17 of those 18 agencies in charge of checking food safety etc.
“…the move was undertaken to avoid strikes….”
Not quite. According to the NLRB complaint, discussed below in a union press release, the move was prompted by Boeing’s retaliation for strikes. But I do enjoy reading the responses of the patriotic right – Move Boeing to China! (#1) Let the Europeans build the planes! (#4) – always putting America first.
‘A complaint issued Wednesday by the National Labor Relations Board against the Boeing Co. alleges that Boeing’s decision in 2009 to locate a 787 final assembly line in North Charleston, S.C., represented illegal retaliation against members of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers who work for the company. Boeing “made coercive statements to its employees that it would remove or had removed work from the unit because employees had struck,” the NLRB complaint alleges. That action was “inherently destructive to the rights guaranteed employees” under federal law, it says. The board’s action reinforces the fact that “workers have a right to join a union, and companies don’t have a right to punish them for engaging in legal union activities,” said Tom Wroblewski, the president of Machinists Union District Lodge 751. “Taking work away from workers because they exercise their union rights is against the law, and it’s against the law in all 50 states.”‘
Let’s cut through the BS. Do you favor giving unions the power to tell a company where it may do business, or don’t you?
No hedging: Yes or No?
not no. HELL NO.if the unions want to decide where plants are to be built let them build there own plants and have the responsibility of getting contracts and hireing and fireing workers,
prompted by Boeing’s [alleged] retaliation for strikes.
FIFY.
Boeing has the right to build a plant wherever it wants to. The NLRB is a farce. Their description of the new plant in South Carolina as “retaliatory” is their attempt at distorting the issue. It’s similar to the privileged class in Wisconsin attempting to portray the collective bargaining power of Big Labor as a “right.” Try reading Ron’s article again, this time a little more carefully and maybe you’ll realize why.
You are either very badly informed or deliberately obfuscating, Joseph. I will assume the former and direct you to this article which sheds considerable light on the goings on between Boeing and the machinist’s union:
http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/04/23/behind-the-obama-labor-boards-bashing-of-boeing-is-a-case-full-of-irony-and-union-failure/
In short: the union is strong-arming a major U.S. employer because they know they have the backing of the Marxist Obama administration and his corrupt Justice Department.
Got ahead of myself there. I meant the “corrupt” NLRB, corrupt as employing underhanded tactics to manipulate an outcome favorable to the union leadership at the expense of both the members and the corporation.
you were right the first time darcy the corrupt justice department. and boy is it ever CORRUPT,
Employees have a right to strike at any time, for any reason. However, they are not protected from the consequences of the strike. If Boeing went out of business, would you call that an unfair labor practice too>
You might have done better to downplay that last quote: to the extent there’s any truth in it, you’re simply alerting the populace to laws that need changing badly.
A less-than-modest proposal: work to repeal any laws that lend any truth to Joseph’s lamentable quote, and make collective bargaining punishable under existing RICO laws. It’s a damned sight more applicable here than in many earlier cases where it’s passed legal muster.
Our not so shining example of union take overs of a major corporation is GM. Does anybody want to buy shares of GM? If that is the example, then Boeing beware! The union was demanding a seat on the board or else. Extortion should not be an obstical for Holder.
Jed I dont even want a gm product any more, and I have owned and loved many of them. not any more,
The move by the NLRB is nothing more than an approved attack against South Carolina by the Obama administration. He knows he will never carry South Carolina and if he can hurt the state in any way, he will. He is one of the most vindictive little persons I have ever witnessed in public service.
The plant was announced over 3 years ago. Why wait until now when it is almost finished and will soon be ready for production? If you think it is to punish Boeing as well, you are correct.
The Constitution is nothing but meaningless words on old paper for Obama.
‘Labour’ Unions another left-wing oxymoron.
Let’s hear what those patriotic Americans have in store for the US.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/04/25/video-your-tax-dollars-pay-professor-and-labor-union-goon-to-teach-violent-revolution/
you are so right Andy. it was on FOX news this morning.God I hope we get a PRESIDENT next election instead of a pretend president who thinks he is suposed to fly around the country apoligising to all who hate us allmost as huch as he does,
this pitiful little african half-wit goes from one disaster to the next. no idea what honor means, no clue to being fair. smart? yeah, in an affirmative action sort of way. it just ignores what it doesn’t like, such as the Constitution and American greatness. i just listened to one talking head after another on the news networks say that it is 100% responsible for our financial mess, the higher higher higher prices at the pump, and the grocery store. this is just the beginning. it is illegally expanding the power of the office (it is ineligible to hold) to just do whatever it thinks might get it reelected, and destroying our country to boot. at this rate we will be lucky to make it to 2012.
looks to me like with all these illegal acts, it belongs in prison; but, so called americans are afraid of blacks rioting. i promise you, there are many, many who are not afraid. to the contrary, we are tired of this crap.
Ron….can you explain the below reference since I was but a babe?
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14708#axzz1Kb9hdfW5
[By Virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me under Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act (ch: 90, 48 Stat. 195, Tit. 15, U.S.C., sec. 701) and under Joint Resolution approved June 19, 1934 (Public Res. 44, 73d Congress), and in order to effectuate the policy of said Title and the purposes of the said Joint Resolution, it is hereby ordered as follows:
CREATION OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
I believe that the Supreme court ruled against (overturned) the NIRA and thus, Roosky implemented the NLRB by his executive order 6763. Whats the facts?
Evidently we should all address each other as ‘comrade’ now.
“For the first time, a government board dominated by pro-union appointees is being empowered to tell a private corporation where to build a new factory.”
Under socialism (and complete socialism, i.e. communism as per the USSR), the government would own the airplane maker. Under free market capitalism, the government would have no say in where the business located the factory. This situation is neither of those. It’s a third way. Oh, and at the post WWI world, there was something called “the third way.” Fascism. I don’t think Dear Liar is aware he’s a fascist (his intelligence has been vastly overrated), but he is.
Welcome to Unionland. These tactics are what the world of business in Italy, my country, has had to put up with for decades. They, and the parallel bullying and harassment by the Communist Party in Parliament, are what created our staggering national debt, our immensely bloated welfare system and our jungle-like bureaucracy. Over the years the unions have fenegled and yelled their way to obtaining laws that buttress their power, making it unlawful to sack a union leader, compelling firms to preserve their positions even while they are on leave on union work (and for years), carving out the right to have their say on anything in the realm of economics, and automatically getting to sit on the boards of public entities. And so on and so forth. Interestingly, the trade unions set up right after world war II were awarded, for free, the headquarters of the old Fascist workers corporations. Anybody see any symbolism there?
The takers versus the makers….Obama sides with the takers.
Unions have overstepped their bounds and destroyed this country. Union members seem to have an “entitlement attitude”. I personall know union members that display this behavior, even though they have college educations, they are more like educated idiots. And they just parrot what they are spoon fed.
It is perhaps time to draw a line in the proverbial sand to stop the further union takeover of our lives. I would personally like to see a return of the “union made” stickers on all products that they make so I can avoid buying them. What the unions have done is launch a defacto war on business and Republicans in general. It should be answered in kind, less the violence and ignorant behavior. The key is state legislation to make union dues voluntary and stop requiring the union afflicted business to collect them via payroll deduction. A union cannot operate without threats and intimidation and strike threats themselves are extortion and blackmail. Enforce the law with zero tolerance. Getting rid of or letting unions die a natural death would increase employment and allow businesses to hire more fairly paid employees. It is like a two for one sale. Nuclear power is dead because unions have a lock on the construction driving the price way out of sight.