Obama and Boeing

Obama and Boeing

Uncharacteristically, the President is silent in a key labor dispute..
Did you hear what President Obama said about the National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing Co.? We didn't either.

Mr. Obama has been touting his plan to double the country's export growth by 2015, thereby creating two million new jobs. Now one of the country's foremost exporters is under assault for seeking a lower-cost venue for manufacturing to stay globally competitive, and the President has had nothing to say.

According to the NLRB's complaint, Boeing acted illegally when it set up its new 787 assembly line in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, to avoid using the unionized workers in Washington state. The gripe comes from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers, whose history of strikes against the airplane manufacturer in Washington state have been costly for Boeing.

The Washington state site has gained thousands of Boeing jobs since the company began to add the South Carolina line, but never mind. The real issue for the Obama NLRB is the chance to make an example of Boeing and diminish investment in right-to-work states, which offer companies a chance to manufacture products without the headaches and work stoppages that unions create.

Seattle administrative law judge Clifford Anderson urged the parties to settle during a hearing on Tuesday, but short of that the case could drag on. After the judge makes his findings, the case will go to the five-member NLRB, where Mr. Obama's nominees hold a three to two majority. One of those three is Craig Becker, whose antibusiness views are so transparent that he needed a recess appointment after a Democratic Senate wouldn't confirm him.

Even if Boeing prevails on the law in an appellate court, relief could be months or years down the road. Meantime, the allegation hangs over Boeing's investment and over any other unionized company contemplating a similar move.

The President isn't above wading into labor disagreements in the states. When unions objected to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's plan to reform his state's arrangement with public employee unions earlier this year, Mr. Obama said he didn't like to see unions "denigrated or vilified" or have their "rights infringed upon."

So here is a seminal case about the ability of a corporation to manage its own assets and decide where to locate its business. Should the NLRB be able to block an American company's domestic expansion? Mr. President, how are your labor appointees assisting American jobs and exports?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303823104576391740089896676.html