WHAT’S GOING ON: NLRB Drops Case Against Boeing
After claiming that Boeing violated federal labor law by locating its 787 “Dreamliner” facility in Charleston, SC, the National Labor Relations Board’s acting general counsel Lafe Solomon announced today that the NLRB dropped its case against the aircraft manufacturer.
According to Solomon, the machinists union requested that the NLRB withdraw the charges after the union brokered a four-year collective bargaining agreement with Boeing earlier in the week. The machinists union originally alleged that Boeing’s move to a right-to-work state was an illegal tactic designed to punish union workers for previous strikes.
“Based on that request, the administrative law judge presiding over the case dismissed the complaint and remanded the case to our regional office in Seattle for further processing. This morning, Regional Director Richard Ahearn approved the union’s written request to withdraw the charge, and the case is now closed,” Solomon said.
He added, “After we issued complaint in April, and as the trial began in June, the parties came to realize that their mutual success required a new approach. The result is a contract that helps guarantee their success and creates job security for workers. I am pleased that the collective bargaining process has succeeded and that the parties have begun a promising new chapter in their relationship.”
The business community expressed a somewhat different tone for the situation. “Although it is a welcomed development that the NLRB is dropping a complaint that never should have been brought in the first place, more needs to be done to prevent this outrageous overreach in the future. The NLRB case against Boeing will stand as one of the great examples of pro-union activism and government overreach in history. Congress should recognize this unfortunate episode by passing legislation that restores the confidence of American employers that their investments in this country aren’t subject to the whim of an unaccountable board with a political agenda,” Randy Johnson, US Chamber of Commerce senior vice president of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits said.
