Boeing Co.’s $750 million aircraft plant in North Charleston is at the heart of a growing labor rift pitting the aerospace giant against one of its biggest unions and now a federal agency.
The National Labor Relations Board sued the company Wednesday, saying Boeing shifted some of its 787 Dreamliner production to South Carolina partly to retaliate against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for past strikes in Washington state.
The NLRB is seeking a court order that would require Boeing to maintain its second 787 assembly line in the Pacific Northwest, an IAMAW stronghold. If successful, that could stop Boeing from building the plane in North Charleston.
I think Boeing is just using unions as a distraction to protect itself from something bigger. Of greater importance than who-works-where-for-how-much may be whether the money South Carolina gave to Boeing to entice it to move its production to that state can be considered a subsidy. The WTO has [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254304576116051390545350.html]ruled unfavorably[/url] over similar things.
BTW, for those with a lot of time on their hands, the 800 page WTO panel report may be found [url=http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds353_e.htm]here[/url].
Hey — the unions gambled — and lost.
I’m sure it’s irritating to just have a company pick up those jobs and transfer them to a state with plenty of workers that aren’t unionized.
From Hot Air (they also have a link to a WSJ article on this):
Just another instance of the socialists in the Federal Government at work rewarding their union allies at the expense of job-creating businesses.