Claims Complaint Is An "Assault Upon The Constitutional Right
Of Free Speech"
The attorneys general of nine
states have written a letter to the acting general counsel of the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) calling on the board to drop
its complaint against Boeing. The NLRB recently filed the complaint
charging the planemaker was violating labor regulations by opening
up a non-union assembly facility for the 787 Dreamliner in
right-to-work South Carolina.
"The right to work, uninhibited by compulsory unionism, is a
precious right and is constitutionally enforceable through our
states’ right to work laws," wrote South Carolina attorney
general Alan Wilson (pictured) for the group. "Such laws are
designed to eliminate union affiliation as a criterion for
employment. However, the NLRB, through this single proceeding,
attempts to sound the death knell of the right to work.
Additionally, this tenuous complaint will reverberate throughout
union and non-union states alike, as international companies will
question the wisdom of locating in a country where the federal
government interferes in industry without cause or
justification."
Wilson says in the letter that the complaint could disrupt and
possibly eliminated the production of the Dreamliner in South
Carolina. He said by forcing Boeing to open a union shop would
"drive a stake through the heart of the free enterprise system,"
and said Boeing's assertions that one of the reasons they had
selected South Carolina was because of the union climate in
Washington State was "an innocent exercise of the company's right
of free speech. The Supreme Court long ago made it clear that the
NLRA does not limit, and the First Amendment protects, the
employer's right to express views on labor policies or
problems."
Wilson said that the complaint was particularly harmful in the
face of a sluggish economic recovery. "Intrusion by the federal
bureaucracy on behalf of unions will not create a single new job or
put one unemployed person back to work," Wilson writes. "The only
justification for the NLRB’s unprecedented retaliatory action
is to aid union survival. Your action seriously undermines our
citizens’ right to work as well as their ability to compete
globally. Therefore, as Attorneys General, we will protect our
citizens from union bullying and federal coercion. We thus call
upon you to cease this attack on our right to work,our
states’ economies, and our jobs."
The letter was signed by Wilson, as well as the attorneys
general of Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Oklahoma, and Arizona ... all right-to-work states.