Big Labor, Obama Administration Drop Attack on Boeing, But Threat Lingers Over U.S. Businesses

Washington, DC, December 9, 2011 – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced today that it is dropping its much-publicized case against Boeing, in which the agency had accused the company of violating federal labor law merely by opening a new plant in South Carolina instead of Washington State, where Boeing has the bulk of its operations.

“The National Labor Relations Board’s decision to drop its complaint against Boeing after the union settled its agreement with the company shows that the agency is acting as a tool of Big Labor,” said Vincent Vernuccio, CEI Labor Policy Counsel.  “Today’s action is better for Democrats and Obama than for workers and businesses around the country.

“While the case will go off the headlines, the fact that no concrete decision was reached vindicating Boeing’s opening a new plant in a right to work state will hang like a cloud over the economy,” Vernuccio warned. “Employers will be wary of opening new facilities around the country—in right to work states out of fear that a union can now use a federal agency to strong arm it into concessions and in forced unionism states for fear that if they want to move in the future the NLRB could bring sanctions against them. Today’s actions do nothing to quell the uncertainty that the Obama’s NLRB has cast upon job creators in the United States.”

“The NLRB set a destructive precedent by pursing its case against Boeing in the first place,” said Ivan Osorio, a CEI labor policy expert. “By prosecuting a company over a plant’s location, it signaled that just about anything is now fair game for a union to bring a complaint. In effect, the NLRB has redefined its own role to act as a tool for unions to pressure employers.” > Read more on Openmarket.org.

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