State Attorney General Pam Bondi joined eight Republican attorneys general from other states Thursday to oppose a National Labor Relations Board complaint launched last week against the Boeing Co.
NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon maintained last week that Boeing violated federal labor laws by seeking to expand operations in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, instead of in Washington back in 2009. Initially Boeing had planned to build 787 Dreamliner airplanes in a Washington-based factory whose labor force was affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). With orders for the airplanes backlogged, Boeing looked to add a second plant in South Carolina.
Florida has a vested interest in ensuring that businesses are not unfairly prevented from expanding their operations in right-to-work states, like ours, said Bondi in a statement on Thursday. Boeing has every right to consider the potential consequences unions may have on business and make decisions accordingly.
Bondi signed off on a letter sent by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina to Solomon which maintained that the NLRBs complain was without merit and demanded he withdraw it.
This complaint represents an assault upon the constitutional right of free speech, and the ability of our states to create jobs and recruit industry, the attorneys general wrote. Your ill-conceived retaliatory action seeks to destroy our citizens right to work.
Our states are struggling to emerge from one of the worst economic collapses since the Depression, they continued. Your complaint further impairs an economic recovery. 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 NRLBs unprecedented retaliatory action is to aid union survival, they concluded. Your action seriously undermines our citizens right to work as well as their ability to compete globally. Therefore, as attorneys general, we will protect our citizens from union bullying and federal coercion. We thus call upon you to cease this attack on our right to work, our states economies and our jobs.
Solomon was clear that the NRLB would look to ensure that Boeing would keep their expansion in Washington, citing comments from Boeing officials that management from that company was concerned about strikes from organized labor in Washington.
A worker's right to strike is a fundamental right guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act, insisted Solomon. We also recognize the rights of employers to make business decisions based on their economic interests, but they must do so within the law. I have worked with the parties to encourage settlement in the hope of avoiding costly litigation, and my door remains open to that possibility.
Boeings decision to build a 787 assembly line in South Carolina sent a message that Boeing workers would suffer financial harm for exercising their collective bargaining rights, said IAM Vice President Rich Michalski when the complaint was filed. Federal labor law is clear: Its illegal to threaten or penalize workers who engage in concerted activity.
Boeings current management needs to rethink its strategy of repeatedly alienating its most valuable asset --the highly-skilled workers who build Boeing aircraft, added Michalski. We will not allow our members to be made scapegoats for any purpose.
Boeing fired back at Solomon's compliant, insisting it had no merit.
"This claim is legally frivolous and represents a radical departure from both NLRB and Supreme Court precedent," said J. Michael Luttig, an executive vice president and general counsel for Boeing. "Boeing has every right under both federal law and its collective bargaining agreement to build additional U.S. production capacity outside of the Puget Sound region.
"We fully expect to complete our new state-of-the-art facility in South Carolina in the weeks ahead, and we will be producing 787s -- America's next great export -- from our factories in both Puget Sound and South Carolina for decades to come," added Lutting.
As things stand, the two sides will present evidence to a National Labor Relations Board judge in Seattle on June 14.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
