The National Labor Relations Board has struck an incredible blow against Boeing’s right to make decisions on where it will locate its operations. If this stands, Boeing must produce the 787 at a union plant in Washington, rather than a non-union plant in South Carolina, where 1,000 people have been hired to assemble the jet. And guess who is the beneficiary of this incredible anti-free enterprise ruling?
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) attacked the NLRB in a statement, saying that if the board’s action is upheld it would “allow unions to hold a virtual ‘veto’ over business decisions.” Mr. Graham said the NLRB is trying to punish states such as South Carolina where unions are relatively weak, and he said he’d seek legislation to cut off funding for “this wild goose chase.”
Joe Trauger, a vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers, said the NLRB’s decision sends a message that companies with union representation can’t expand in right-to-work states. If the complaint succeeds “no company will be safe from the NLRB stepping in to second-guess its business decisions on where to expand or whom to hire,” he said.
The board is reversing decades of its own precedent and Supreme Court rulings to “advance its agenda to expand unionization,” Mr. Trauger said. “If the IAM and NLRB succeed in their complaint, no company will be safe from the NLRB stepping in to second-guess its business decisions on where to expand or whom to hire,” Mr. Trauger said
Truly scary.
