Lawmakers probe NLRB case
Published 12:01 am Wednesday, June 15, 2011
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A congressional committee investigating a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing Co. will hear from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and the chief attorney for the labor board during a hearing this week.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government is looking into an NLRB lawsuit claiming that Boeing built an assembly line for its new 787 aircraft in South Carolina in retaliation against unionized workers in Washington state.
The $750 million plant, the largest single industrial investment in South Carolina history, opened last week. The NLRB complaint goes before a judge in Seattle on Tuesday.
The congressional committee meeting Friday in North Charleston announced Tuesday that Haley and NLRB acting general counsel Lafe Solomon will be among the witnesses.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., will preside at the hearing that will include three other Republican congressmen, all from South Carolina. U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, who represents the Charleston area, will be joined by U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.
Other witnesses include South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Cynthia Ramaker, a North Charleston Boeing worker who unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the NLRB complaint against the company.
Labor attorney Phil Miscimarra will also testify as will Lewis Gossett, the president and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, and Neil Whitman, the president of Dunhill Staffing Systems.
The NLRB board sued Boeing in April, claiming the company located its assembly line in South Carolina to retaliate against Washington state union workers who went on strike in 2008. The NLRB wants the assembly work returned to Washington.
Most 787s are being assembled there by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The first delivery of a plane is expected later this year and the company has more than 800 orders.
Work begins on the first 787 at the North Charleston plant next month with the first South Carolina aircraft expected to fly in 2012.
Boeing asks a judge to dismiss a labor board complaint about the South Carolina 787 plant. Page A1.
