• Boeing,  National Labor Relations Board

    Poll Watch: 64% Say Boeing Should Be Allowed South Carolina Plant

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., left, accompanied by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011, to charge that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is playing politics and hindering job growth because of the NLRB’s action against Seattle-based Boeing, charging the aircraft manufacturer wanted to build a factory in South Carolina, a right-to-work-state, in order avoid union problems

    According to the latest Rasmussen Poll.

    The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may be upset with Boeing’s plan to operate a non-union plant in South Carolina, but most Americans think it should be allowed to.

    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll finds that 64% think Boeing has the right to open the plant in South Carolina while just 21% disagree. When respondents are told that the NLRB believes that opening the plant is an act of retaliation against the union, the numbers barely move. Only 17% think the agency has the right to prevent Boeing from opening the new facility while 64% disagree.

    The House is expected to approve a bill barring the NLRB from getting involved with Boeing’s operation of a $750 million aircraft assembly line in South Carolina – a right-to-work state — instead of Washington State.  In April, the labor board filed a complaint against Boeing for opening the plant, claiming they did so in order to retaliate against unionized workers in Washington State for participating in numerous strikes.  Boeing attributes low costs for the plant’s location.

    Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly side with Boeing on the issue while Democrats are more evenly divided.

    While more than 7-out-of-10 private sector workers believe Boeing should be allowed to operate a new, non-union, facility in South Carolina, only 54% of government employees agree.

    Fifty-nine percent (59%) of union members agree that Boeing should be allowed to operate the South Carolina production plant.

    I thought we had capitalism in the United States and not Soviet style central planning socialism?

    The GOP controlled House will pass this bill and Dingy Harry Reid (Democrat Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Senator) will probably bury it in the Senate. In the meantime, the NLRB is gutted because of a lack of membership and a voting quorum.

    But, never fear, this issue will rear its ugly head during the Presidential campaign.

  • Boeing,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    President 2012: Mitt Romney Delivers Labor Policy Speech – Backs Boeing

    Paul Munsch is the owner of St. Louis Paving in St. Louis, Missouri. He and his employees have faced years of bullying by the union bosses with whom President Obama continues to side.

    GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a labor policy speech this morning in South Carolina before heading to Tampa, Florida for tonight’s GOP Presidential debate.

    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) invoked aerospace giant Boeing in his labor policy speech Monday as an example of the type of American innovation he would encourage as president.

    Romney used the opportunity to hit President Obama on his labor policies, highlighting what he called the “egregious example” of the president’s failed policies in South Carolina.

    Romney toured Boeing’s new South Carolina plant prior to the speech, a strong indication of his commitment to stand with South Carolina in the dispute between that state and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent federal agency. The board is suing Boeing for allegedly moving the plant from Washington state in retaliation for labor strikes there.

    “It’s an assault on business, it’s an assault on jobs, it’s an assault on states that have right-to-work policies,” Romney said of the NLRB suit.

    On Monday, Romney also named William Kilberg, the lead counsel for Boeing in the ongoing dispute, as a co-chairman of his Labor Policy Advisory Group. Kilberg will help “shape the policies I am proposing to return power from the labor bosses to the workers and businesses that can get our economy going again,” Romney said in a statement.

    “Boeing, when they decided where they were going to build their new expansion facility, chose South Carolina, chose America,” Romney said in the speech. “The folks that are their No. 1 competitor, Airbus, chose China for their expansion. … Boeing did the right thing. Boeing should not be punished for doing the right thing. Boeing should be celebrated and encouraged.”

    The issue has become important in key state South Carolina, where Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has repeatedly called on Obama, along with the Republican presidential candidates, to state his position on the lawsuit.

    This Boeing flap in South Carolina WILL be an issue in the general election. I can see the political ads already flying in the key battleground states.

    President Obama is likely to allow the NLRB vacancies go unfilled and thus any further NLRB action to avoid any further political embarrassment from his friends in Big Labor.

  • Barack Obama,  Boeing,  National Labor Relations Board,  Workforce Fairness Institute

    Obama Administration Plans To Scale Back Regulations On Businesses Called BS by Workforce Fairness Institute

    The White House announced today that it will scale back regulations on business.

    The Obama administration will release final plans Tuesday for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations, an effort to reduce the burden on business and counter criticism that the White House is tone-deaf to business concerns.  Certain railroad cars won’t have to install expensive technology, hospitals will be able to skip a round of federal paperwork and low-risk travelers to the U.S. will enjoy expedited entry, officials said.  Some businesses will be allowed to file federal forms electronically.  The administration estimates that about a dozen of the changes will save businesses some $10 billion over five years, with other smaller initiatives adding to the total.  But the changes don’t affect the broad thrust of major administration initiatives that have drawn criticism from businesses, such as proposed rules to reduce carbon emissions and laws passed last year that aim to protect consumers from financial and health-insurance abuses.  The White House said it sought to eliminate ‘dumb’ rules without undermining the underlying goals

    But….. the Workforce Fairness Institute is calling the Obama Administration out.

    From the press release:

    The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) issued the following statement and list of rules, complaints and actions President Obama can instruct Federal agencies to shed or refrain from enacting if today’s announcement from the White House concerning plans for “ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations…to reduce the burden on business” is at all serious.
     
    “Today’s announcement on reduced regulations from the White House certainly appears to be nothing more than a political charade.  As the Obama Administration makes this announcement, his regulatory agencies are considering job-killing rules that will increase unemployment and force businesses to close,” said Fred Wszolek, spokesperson for the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI).  “President Obama may think he’s being clever, but in reality, actions like these insult workers and employers as they fail to seriously address the issues impeding job creation.  If Obama is in any way genuine, he will call on his National Labor Relations Board, National Mediation Board and Department of Labor to stop the assault against small businesses so they can focus on getting our nation’s economy back on a path toward recovery.”
     
     
    Rules, Complaints & Actions President Obama Can Instruct Federal Agencies To Shed Or Refrain From Enacting
     
    1) NLRB: Rescind complaint against the Boeing Company.
     
    2) NLRB: Withhold issuance of ruling in Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile.
     
    3) NLRB: Cease activity on proposed rule closing the election window from 38 days to just over a week.
     
    4) NLRB: Refrain from instituting organizing elections that are offsite or employ electronic technology.
     
    5) NLRB: Withdraw decision requiring employees who objected to paying full agency fees for nonrepresentational purposes to renew annually.
     
    6) NLRB: End lawsuit against states that passed constitutional amendments defending the secret ballot.
     
    7) NLRB: Cancel judgment allowing third party contractors to access private property to organize workers and distribute materials.
     
    8) NLRB: Annul decision allowing large inflatable rats to be displayed outside businesses for the purpose of intimidating workers and customers.
     
    9) NMB: Retract rule changing nearly a century of precedent in the airline and railroad industries whereby a majority of workers were required to form a collective bargaining unit.
     
    10) NMB: Stop frivolous investigations against airlines and job creators.

     
    Inflatable rats?

    Yeah, this is just a re-election ploy by Obama to say one thing and then continue on with their policies of destroying American business.

    If anything can be said of President Obama he certainly has negatively affected business in this country. I don’t think this puny and late effort will gain much traction, particularly when the flap with the NLRB and Boeing Corporation continues over their South Carolina airplane plant.

  • Boeing,  National Labor Relations Board,  Nikki Haley

    Boeing Facility Opens in South Carolina Despite Opposition by Obama’s NLRB

    South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks during the dedication of Boeing Co.’s $750 million final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. on Friday, June 10, 2011. Haley and state officials have joined hundreds of Boeing workers in North Charleston to cut the ribbon opening the company’s 787 jetliner assembly plant at the center of a National Labor Relations Board dispute

    Does anyone really think the Big Unions are going to be able to transfer these jobs back to Washington State?

    Friday marked the opening of the Boeing (BA) 787 Dreamliner Final Assembly building in North Charleston, South Carolina, despite the state’s battle with the National Labor Relations Board about the company’s decision to build in South Carolina.

    “The NLRB wants the jobs here transferred back to Washington State and that’s not going to happen,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told FOXbusiness.com. “Opening this facility is an exclamation point.”

    The $750 million facility, which finished construction six months ahead of schedule, features 642,720 square feet (roughly 10 football fields) of space and will produce three 787 Dreamliners per month.

    “In this building, our talented Boeing South Carolina teammates are going to assemble the finest, most technologically advanced commercial widebody airplane in history,” said Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina. “Airline customers from around the world will come to the South Carolina Lowcountry to take delivery of their 787s, and we look forward to demonstrating what ‘made with pride in South Carolina’ is all about.”

    Boeing officials, workers, and politicians all took part in the event, praising the success of the company.

    “To have our nation’s No. 1 exporter in this state…this is the game changer of my lifetime,” said US Congressman James Clyburn D-SC.

    “I can’t wait to see those mack-daddy planes come out of here,” said Governor Nikki Haley.

    This is Boeing’s second 787 facility, with the first housed in Washington state. In April, the NLRB sued Boeing for building in South Carolina, saying it chose to build in that right-to-work state as punishment to union members for previous strikes.

    Hearings about this matter are scheduled to begin on Tuesday. While Boeing and the NLRB fight their battle, Boeing’s production in South Carolina will continue on as scheduled.

    In this economy, the Obma administration is supporting Big Labor over American business. Washington state and the Boeing unions drove Boeing out and now they are trying to use the power of Obama’s Big Government to force Boeing to do it “their” way.

    Ain’t going to happen.

    Facility construction began in November in 2009, creating more than 9,000 jobs for the construction phase. Thousands more jobs are expected to be created when the facility is running at full capacity.

    Plane construction is scheduled to begin mid-2011 and the first delivery is scheduled for 2012.

  • Ayn Rand,  Barack Obama,  Boeing,  Day By Day,  National Labor Relations Board

    Day By Day April 24, 2011 – There’s the Rub



    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    The Boeing Vs. NLRB flap is an egregious overreach by the the Big Government of the Obama Administration.

    The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has been running amok to do favors for organized labor under Obama, is now trying to tell Boeing where it can manufacture planes:

    Boeing announced in 2007 that it planned to assemble seven 787 Dreamliner airplanes per month in the Puget Sound area of Washington state, where its employees have long been represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The company later said that it would create a second production line to assemble an additional three planes a month to address a growing backlog of orders. In October 2009, Boeing announced that it would locate that second line at the non-union facility.

    In repeated statements to employees and the media, company executives cited the unionized employees’ past strike activity and the possibility of strikes occurring sometime in the future as the overriding factors in deciding to locate the second line in the non-union facility.

    The NLRB launched an investigation of the transfer of second line work in response to charges filed by the Machinists union and found reasonable cause to believe that Boeing had violated two sections of the National Labor Relations Act because its statements were coercive to employees and its actions were motivated by a desire to retaliate for past strikes and chill future strike activity.

    The second line is being located in South Carolina — a right to work state. As Phil Klein reports, Boeing and South Carolina senator Jim DeMint are not at all amused by this stunt by the NLRB.

    And, people scoff at what Ayn Rand wrote decades ago cannot happen?

    There IS the rub, John Galt.


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