Posted on 05/11/2011 2:15:15 PM PDT by Qbert
A decision by Boeing Co. to construct a $1 billion production facility in South Carolina — rather than in Washington State, where the company is based — has run into opposition from the National Labor Relations Board, which claims the move was motivated by the firm's desire not to deal with labor unions. Washington has a unionized aerospace workforce and South Carolina does not, and the NLRB is pursuing an order to keep the production line in the Pacific Northwest.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, however, is pushing back hard. Haley, a Republican, was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (May 10), pressuring the Obama administration over the NLRB's findings against Boeing and characterizing them as a serious blow to free enterprise in the United States. Republican members of the state's congressional delegation, as well as the state attorney general, joined Haley.
“This is an issue that may have started in South Carolina, but we want to make sure it never touches another state,” Haley said in an appearance at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to CNN. “We are demanding that the president respond to what the NLRB has done. This goes against everything we know our American economy to be.”
The White House so far has stayed away from the dispute, saying the NLRB is an independent agency that pursues its own investigations. But the board is staffed with Democratic appointees, as CNN notes, and the dispute over the Boeing plant is quickly becoming a larger partisan battle over labor unions.
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, accused Republicans of stretching the Boeing matter into a national debate over state labor laws. “That's just factually incorrect,” Harkin said, according to The Associated Press. “There is absolutely no way that the outcome of this case could affect in any way the laws of any state.”
Boeing, meanwhile, defended its decision to relocate to South Carolina in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal.
“We hold no animus toward union members, and we have never sought to threaten or punish them for exercising their rights, as the NLRB claims,” Boeing CEO Jim McNerney wrote. “To the contrary, union members are part of our company's fabric and key to our success. About 40% of our 155,000 U.S. employees are represented by unions — a ratio unchanged since 2003. Nor are we making a mass exodus to right-to-work states that forbid compulsory union membership. We have a sizable presence in 34 states; half are unionized and half are right-to-work.”
Haley and the other SC lawmakers need to get Clyburn to take a stand on this...make life miserable for him
This is perhaps the most sadly ironic story of our modern economy.
The unions are acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend.
The ex-girlfriend staged work strikes every 3 years without fail. They have crippled this company at every turn they could. They had a prolonged strike during the RND of the joint strike fighter which Boeing eventually lost.
So Boeing finally says - the hell with you - I’m leaving.
And the now the psycho ex girlfriend says: ‘NO! You cant go! You must stay here so I can continue to abuse you at every turn, increase your costs, reduce your competativeness and just make your life miserable.’
And this nonsense is supported, of course, by the NLRB.
Big surprise.
Where’s the legislation preventing these unions from extortion charges when they decide to strike during critical times in a business’ life?
Fvck You, labor unions and the NLRB. Seriously, your time of need is finished. go. to. hell.
If there is ever a division point that might help seperate conservatives from gov liberal a-holes during this next election cycle, the balance of power of mandatory labor unions may become one. I hope your time is limited and your clock is ticking.
Being that the last couple turned into psycho ex-girlfriends - I can vouch for that kind of behavior.
Set up a new South Carolina corporation, see the nearing completion plant to the new corporation for a dollar and other valuable considerations, have the prefered stock ownership varied from Boeing — buy the parts made from the SC plant and tell the NLRB to pound sand.
South Carolina - We already started one war, we can do it again.
Boeing should call a press conference directly addressing the president and say,
“We’ll build these planes in South Carolina or somewhere overseas,
you have 48 hours to decide.”
YES! What you said.....our corp tax rates are highest in the world...
Works for me! I hate the NLRB with a passion that goes back to the April 1954 Kohler strike that lasted until October 1965 (the longest strike in US History). They have been a rabid supporter of union interests since they were established, and are most assuredly not an unbiased and independent arbiter. The NLRB has always sat at the union's side of the table and has always had an adversarial role in dealing with corporate America.
Regards,
GtG
Answer: UNIONS.. and corporate taxes.. Duuuugh!..
“Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, accused Republicans of stretching the Boeing matter into a national debate over state labor laws. “That’s just factually incorrect,” Harkin said, according to The Associated Press. “There is absolutely no way that the outcome of this case could affect in any way the laws of any state.”
I see Harkin is still as dumb and communist as ever.
What the NLRB is doing reminds me of “Atlas Shrugged”.
Who is John Galt?
>>What the NLRB is doing reminds me of “Atlas Shrugged”.<<
As you can see from my post below yours, I do too. I’ve been watching government action in the last few years and been actually saying, regarding specific government interaction with private business, that “this looks like it was pulled right off the pages of Atlas Shrugged.” What is worse, just as the government got more and more intrusive, and more and more absurd in their actions as one reads through the chapters, it is though we are marching through the book, chapter by chapter. This case, if it were not so serious, would be laughable.
Good news is that the good guys win - after the system utterly collapses.
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