From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine
April 26, 2011
Supply Chain News: National Labor Relations Board On March, Seeking to Block Boeing Factory Move and Challenging State Bans on Card Check
NLRB Says Boeing Needs to Bring 787 Production Line back to Seattle, Seeks to Block Anti-Card Check Laws before a Card Check Law Exists
SCDigest Editorial Staff
SCDigest Says: |
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| While Solomon later said he was not seeking to close the South Carolina factory or prohibit Boeing from assembling planes there, the NLRB complain says it looks to force Boeing to operate the second 787 line at a union plant in Washington. |
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After a couple of years of general labor dissatisfaction with the pace of the Obama administration's actions to benefit the labor unions that backed him heavily in the 2008 election, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced in the past week two moves that likely have union leaders smiling and manufacturers worried.
The most controversial is clearly the news that the NLRB was challenging Boeing's nearly complete plans to build a factory in South Carolina for construction of the airplane giant's troubled 787 Dreamliner aircraft, over union-related issues.
That move will take work and jobs from Boeing's unionized factories in Washington and move them to non-unionized plants in South Carolina, a "right to work" state.
The NLRB complaint says Boeing’s decision to transfer a second production line for the 787 plane to South Carolina was motivated by an unlawful desire to retaliate against union workers for their past strikes in Washington and to discourage future strikes. The agency claims it is illegal for companies to take actions in retaliation against workers for exercising the right to strike.
The NLRB effort to block a company from deciding where to build new factories is nearly unprecedented, and could ultimately have a profound impact on dozens of industries and hundreds or thousands of companies. For example, would new rules block unionized US auto makers from ever creating non-union factories in right to work states?
While such manufacturing location maneuvers have been going on for decades, the NLRB justifies its challenge - coming at a time when the new factory is nearly complete and Boeing has hired already hired more than 1,000 to staff it - by saying that in internal documents and news interviews, Boeing officials specifically cited the strikes and potential future strikes as a reason for their 2009 decision to expand in South Carolina.
The NLRB brought the challenge after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers sent a complaint to the agency alleging that Boeing had decided to move production to South Carolina largely in retaliation for a 58-day strike in 2008.
“This claim is legally frivolous and represents a radical departure from both NLRB and Supreme Court precedent,” said J. Michael Luttig, Boeing's general counsel. “Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional US production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region.”
In a statement last week, the NLRB's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said that “A worker’s right to strike is a fundamental right guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act. We also recognize the rights of employers to make business decisions based on their economic interests, but they must do so within the law.”
While Solomon later said he was not seeking to close the South Carolina factory or prohibit Boeing from assembling planes there, the NLRB complain says it looks to force Boeing to operate the second 787 line at a union plant in Washington.
A hearing before a federal judge on the complaint could come as early as June 14.
Boeing plans to assemble seven planes a month at its unionized plant in Everett, WA and three planes a month at its non-union plant near Charleston, SC. Boeing executives have apparently indicated that the issue in the decision to go to South Carolina was not so much one of wages but the potential of additional strikes and work stoppages. The Machinists union has struck Boeing's Seattle-area factories four times since 1989, most recently in 2008.
Joe Trauger, a vice president with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), slammed the NLRB action. If it is upheld, he wrote in a blog post, "no company will be safe from the NLRB stepping in to second-guess its business decisions on where to expand or whom to hire."
NLRB Also Takes Action in States Blocking Card Check
On Monday, the NLRB apparently has told state officials that it will soon file federal lawsuits against Arizona and South Dakota that seek to invalidate constitutional amendments in those states that prohibit private sector employees from choosing to unionize through a procedure known as "card check."
(Manufacturing article continued below)
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There have been efforts in Congress to pass a law that allows union formation by a majority of workers signing a simple card indicating their desire for a union, rather than by the traditional secret ballot. When Democrat President Obama took office in 2009 with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, many companies believed a card check law would be passed, although ultimately a bill never moved forward, and is not going to pass with the House now in Republican control.
