Gingrich pushes to defund the NLRB

Published 12:01 am Saturday, May 14, 2011

Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is calling on Congress to defund the National Labor Relations Board if it continues to pursue a complaint against the Boeing Co.

Gingrich’s remarks at a conference Friday in Washington came a day after he formally entered the 2012 GOP presidential race.

The complaint says Boeing illegally retaliated for a 2008 strike by adding a non-union assembly line in South Carolina for 787 passenger jets. Most of that work is now done in Washington state by union workers.

The NLRB said it wasn’t saying that Boeing couldn’t operate a second line in South Carolina, but that it should place another in Washington, too.

A week ago, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said candidates will have to take a stand on the NLRB. Gingrich said bureaucrats are destroying jobs on behalf of an ideology.

Associated Press