I recently overheard this story and could not believe it, because it seems too blatant of an abuse of power.
Boeing in 2009 decided to build a plant in South Carolina, no doubt part of the decision was due to union strikes in previous years in Washington. The plant was being built as a second assembly line for their 787 airliner. However, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has stepped in and filed a complaint for the motive of Boeing to build in South Carolina. The NLRB is a government agency charged with safeguarding union rights. The NLRB wants a temporary line in Washington to become permanent. However, making the temporary line in Washington permanent would effectively shutdown the South Carolina facility. In actuality the complaint stems from leaders in Boeing saying the union strikes played a role in the plant in South Carolina.
The Boeing officials have called the attack on their ability to do business freely. Of course this has turned into a political debate as well. Repubicans feel the NLRB has overstepped its bounds as unelected officials and have even requested for their funding to be suspended temporarily. Democrats, who have always favored unions, accuse the Republicans of meddling and call their actions, "disgraceful and dangerous."
Boeing has recently stated this is another reason for companies to look to foreign soil to build facilities to keep the labor and union issue out of it. The plant is scheduled to open in July and Boeing plans on that still happening believing that will win. One other issue on the table is that South Carolina is a right-to-work state with scares the Democrats as well.
This ruling will be large, especially with an upcoming Presidential election. It is a shame this is not getting big press, but this outcome can again change the way we operate businesses in the US. To me this further shows the far reaching socialist viewpoints of groups like NLRB and our elected officials, all the way up to Obama. They are in favor of unions and will still try to get card check passed when no one is looking. In this case Boeing is not taking away jobs in Washington and has actually created more there and will create thousands more in South Carolina. To me this is not a government issue and Boeing should yell and scream from the rooftops here about this abuse of power.
The picture below is a t-shirt that has been seen in South Carolina.
Here is a link from radio personality Neal Boortz on his viewpoints of this issue.
