In a nutshell, Boeing has a contract with union workers in Washington State, but they are relocating a plant to South Carolina, a so-called right to work state, to bust the union. That’s illegal, and the NLRB called them on it. Darryl Issa of RepubliCorp, will hold Congressional hearings in SC, where the pro-Boeing sentiment is highest, because RepubliCorp loves corporations, but hates workers like you.
A U.S. House committee takes to the road today for a politically charged field hearing in North Charleston, S.C., to determine whether the Boeing Co. violated labor laws by moving an assembly operation from Washington State to South Carolina.
“Chairman Issa and the other committee members want to hear from folks on the ground to learn what the economic impacts are and really get their arms around the local impact of the potential decision,” said Jeffrey Solsby, a spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
At issue is a National Labor Relations Board lawsuit against the airplane manufacturer alleging that the company illegally moved the assembly of its fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner from union-friendly Washington to the South, where union influence is less prominent.
Almost every GOP presidential candidate has chastised the lawsuit. Mitt Romney called it a “power grab.” Herman Cain said it was “completely unacceptable … political games.” Tim Pawlenty called it “another outrageous overreach by the federal government.” And Newt Gingrich accused the labor board of “basically breaking the law.”
The labor board, which is appointed by the president, wants to force Boeing to keep assembly of the jetliner in Washington, but would not make the company forgo the new non-unionized plant.
Boeing said a NLRB victory would “significantly impact, and perhaps permanently halt, Boeing’s efforts to complete the facility,” bringing “substantial economic harm to South Carolina.”
The labor board says Boeing moved the assembly to retaliate against union workers at the Washington plant, where there have been five strikes since 1977. The most recent strike in 2008 cost Boeing $1.8 billion, according to the company.
The board has cited comments that a Boeing senior official made to a Seattle Times reporter as evidence that the company was trying to avoid unionized labor… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <ABC>
Issa is a lying hypocrite. He only wants to hear from folks on the ground in SC, where workers would be unable to strike, but he wants no input from folks on the ground in WA, where thousands of union workers will be thrown onto the streets if RepubliCorp has their way.
13 Responses to “RepubliCorp Takes Action for Boeing”
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Has anyone made the connection, yet, that perhaps, Republicans might possibly favor BIG BUSINESS!!! 👿
Really? 🙄
Issa is sure wasting a lot of time and taxpayer money on worthless endeavors. If he and Boner speak even 1/10 as much time on a meaningful jobs program as they do on golfing junkets and time-wasting, this country would be in much better shape!
Right Jack. It’s an expensive publicity stunt.
What surprises anybody about this ? It has been very clear for a long time now , the GOP is aligned with Corporations in their determination to break each and every Union–This is pure and simple Union -Busting— The quotes from GOP “candidates are disgusting.
Absolutely true, Phyllis. And we need to keep hammering it home over and over again in the hope of breaking through the apathy.
I attended – it was a sham. This has nothing to do with Boeing opening a plant in SC; this about Boeing violating terms of the NLRA in Washington. The GOP is just trying to get anti-union sentiment all over the place by telling people it would affect jobs in SC (which it will NOT, as NLRB itself said over and over again yesterday).
So they wasted taxpayer money by flying in congresspersons to one state to talk about a violation in another state. They tried to get NLRB to reveal particular arguments that cannot come out until the actual hearing between Boeing and Wash. employees. And they introduced “witnesses” who would never be admitted to testify in the actual hearing, because their testimony is in no way relevant to the situation at hand.
Issa and SC rep Gowdy were juvenile – interrupted questions from the panel who supported unions (like Kucinich and Norton and Maloney); Issa left early, leaving Gowdy as chair, and he refused to alllow Norton to continue a question, and waived the state Atty Gen’s obligation to answer it. He (atty gen) claimed NLRB conducted “misconduct” and said it was his legal obligation to contest the NLRB – first Norton reminded him of the oath he took, which stipulates the atty gen [‘you lie’s son, btw] has obligation to defend federal law, and then asked him what the ‘misconduct’ was by NLRB. He stammered away until Gowdy said he had no obligation to answer. When Norton pursued, Gowdy shut her up – they had a yelling argument right there.
Disgusting … the entire damn thing. And when I left after it all, I found a truck backed into my car in the parking lot.
Welcome Rob. 🙂
Disgusting is the word for it. Thank you so much for sharing the story of how it went down.
First off, could they find a bigger douchebag than Issa to go out there? And why isn’t he talking to the workers in Washington State and how this will affect their well being? Because Issa doesn’t give a shit about making x # of employees in Washington state unemployed? Yep, that’s about it.
Second off, if Boeing is a union shop, they should carry that union (and pay for all those workers to relocate) down there. Why are not all states required to have unionized shops? Because they are assholes that’s why and we let them get away with it? Do you know how much Mayor Daley spent of City of Chicago money to re-locate their headquarters to Chicago from Washington state? Because I do and it was in the billions of dollars, they basically paid for every exec from VP on down in the company (meaning all their relocation fees including the costs for those assholes to sell their homes) to move there and built a new building for them for free. Plus they gave them a tax holiday of real estate tax for 5 (it might have been 10 years).
Now, that my friends is a shitload of money. Now, the City of Chicago is not rich by any standards; they could have used that money to tear down Cabrini Green (Section 8 housing where you can put all the really poor people and gangs into huge buildings), but they got Fed funds for that and they built condos all over the city so they could have “mixed income housing” (basically putting all the poor people in with middle class housing on the South side where all of the other middle income people live, if you can call the middle income; we wouldn’t want to put them on the North side where all the wealthy people live because they would have a shit fit) and they could have torn down the ugly buildings along the Dan Ryan (same type of housing as Cabrini Green), but they got Fed funds for that too. Or they could have used that money to fix some of the really blighted areas of the South Side (where the poor are concentrated), but no, they gave all that money to Boeing for nothing.
And now they are gonna move their plant from Washington state to North Carolina to get out of the unions – I don’t think so. Either they leave that plant in Washington state and learn how to deal with the unions so that they don’t strike (they were probably asking for a $.10/hr raise and Boeing wouldn’t give them that) so they struck (and I don’t blame them, the cost of living in Washington state is a lot higher than it is in North Carolina) or some other stupid ass thing. I worked in a union shop in my last job and we negotiated the terms of the union contract every year and those people have been asked to work stupid hours at the end of each quarter; I’m talking like 7am-6pm 7 days a week for 3 weeks in a row and not one of them even complained because they were getting time and a half for their overtime (which made them very happy – their normal schedule is 7am-3:30pm with 2 15 minute breaks and a half hour for lunch). How do you have a family, much less small children in daycare and work those kinds of hours with a smile on your face?
Boeing is just being asinine – after all the money that the City of Chicago shelled out to move their corporate headquarters here and now they want to move their plant to NC to get of the union? I don’t think so – learn to get along with your union, give them a fair contract that you negotiate every year and you’ll never have another strike again. Dumasses. 🙄 😡 😡
That says it all, Lisa.
Everyone, please take note of Rob’s comment above. I have known him online for several years. At Buzz Flash, he is Regroce. His integrity is impeccable. If he says it, believe it.
Thans, TC – here’s my overdue take on the event:
http://www.rob-servations.com/1/post/2011/06/congressional-committee-meeting-in-n-charleston-was-a-sham.html
Thanks Rob. It’s an excellent article and I recommend it.