Members of Congress will travel to South Carolina later this month to hold a hearing on a federal labor complaint against the Boeing Co. involving its factory there.
The National Labor Relations Board claims Boeing retaliated against its Machinists in Washington state for labor strikes when the company picked North Charleston as the home of its second 787 assembly site in 2009. A hearing on the labor board’s complaint is being held in Seattle on Tuesday.
The Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing June 17 in South Carolina. Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has requested the presence of the labor board’s general counsel, Lafe Solomon, who filed the complaint against Boeing.
“This hearing will focus on how your actions against Boeing could impact the thousands of Boeing employees at a non-union worksite in South Carolina,” Issa wrote Solomon on Tuesday. “You assert that you do not seek to close Boeing’s operations in South Carolina, yet the relief requested would have that exact effect.”
Solomon cited that the ongoing dispute as a reason to decline Issa’s invitation. Issa said he would subpoena Solomon if necessary. A labor board spokeswoman said the agency had until Friday to respond.
The labor board’s Solomon wants Boeing to establish a second 787 line in Everett, even though the company has already built a $750 million plant in South Carolina and hired 1,000 workers. Boeing plans to open the North Charleston site on Friday and begin production there next month.
Most 787s are being assembled in Washington state by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Boeing expects to deliver the first one to a customer later this year, and with more than 800 orders, it’s expected to be a major seller for years.
Boeing has said stopping work on 787s in South Carolina would be impermissibly punitive because it would effectively shut it down. The Chicago-based company has also taken issue with the labor board’s claim that the company removed or transferred some work from its Puget Sound facility, saying all the work in South Carolina will be new and that no union member has lost a job over the action.
The wide-ranging dispute has drawn attention to the anti-union reputation of South Carolina, a right-to-work state where individual employees can join unions voluntarily, but unions cannot require membership across entire worksites. Like many others, the state also bars government employees from collective bargaining. In 2009, just 5.4 percent of the state’s workers were covered by unions, according to federal census data.
The executive director of a pro-union group said Wednesday that, while the congressional hearing is a distraction, the labor board’s legal case represents a crucial opportunity for parties on both sides to make their arguments — and for the federal agency to do its job.
“It’s important for South Carolinians to know that it isn’t about the status of the state as a right-to-work state. This is simply about the NLRB, the agency charged with enforcing our nation’s labor law, doing its job,” said Kimberly Freeman Brown of American Rights at Work. “The sad reality of it is that this is a political game that is being played out at a very serious time for workers in our nation’s history.”
Republicans and business groups say the board’s efforts could stifle economic growth and prevent companies from expanding to other states where labor costs may be cheaper.
“Everything the NLRB has done up until this point is precedent-setting,” said J.J. Darby, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business in South Carolina. “We’re terribly disappointed that, when the economy is just now slowly starting to recover … bureaucrats in Washington would do everything they do to tamp that down.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
