Wilson
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Nine state attorneys general want the National Labor Relations Board to withdraw a complaint against Boeing.
The NLRB is upset that Boeing decided to assemble 787 Dreamliner airplanes in a South Carolina facility instead of in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Boeing said a history of strikes in the Puget Sound facility, which has unionized employees who assemble seven 787 Dreamliners per month, forced its decision.
Employees at the South Carolina facility are not unionized.
"Our states are struggling to emerge from one of the worst economic collapses since the Depression," South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson wrote to the NLRB on Wednesday. "Intrusion by the federal bureaucracy on behalf of unions will not create a single new job or put one unemployed person back to work.
"The only justification for the NLRB's unprecedented retaliatory action is to aid union survival. Your action seriously undermines our citizens' right to work as well as their ability to compete globally."
The letter also says the NLRB's action "seeks to drive a stake through the heart of the free enterprise system."
The NLRB says Boeing violated two sections of the National Labor Relations Act because its statements were coercive to employees and it was retaliating for past strikes. The NLRB seeks an order that would require Boeing to move the production line to Washington.
A NLRB administrative law judge will conduct a hearing on June 14 in Seattle. Attorneys general joining Wilson in the letter were Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia, Jon Bruning of Nebraska, Greg Abbott of Texas, Sam Olens of Georgia, Pam Bondi of Florida, Luther Strange of Alabama, Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma and Tom Horne of Arizona.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.