Why Are Big Labor and the Obama Administration Targeting Boeing?

Union Bosses Determined to Block Exodus of Private-Sector Employees and Their Paychecks From Forced-Unionism States

The highly controversial complaint brought by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon against Boeing, in which he asserts that the aerospace company committed an “unfair labor practice” when it opted in 2009 to open a new aircraft assembly line in Right to Work South Carolina, represents a double-edged sword for Big Labor.

Mr. Solomon, whose nomination to be the NLRB’s top lawyer has yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and who holds his position due to a temporary appointment by President Obama, filed his complaint at the request of International Association of Machinists (IAM/AFL-CIO) union officials. Machinists union chiefs wanted Boeing’s new production line for its 787 Dreamliner to be built in their Seattle-area stronghold, and not in South Carolina, where Boeing employees had rejected IAM union monopoly bargaining.

Officials of other unions have vociferously defended Mr. Solomon’s action. For example, during a May 20 media event in Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka preemptively declared Boeing guilty of having “violated” the law and recommended that Mr. Solomon apply the same arguments he had made in the Boeing complaint to go after other businesses.

(To read more, click to download the full Boeing Fact Sheet)