Obama’s union remarks throw spotlight on S.C. Boeing Machinists

President Barack Obama is catching some attention on Twitter for comments he made this morning at an

AFL-CIO conference.

Here’s the comment that’s generating response:

“And when organized labor succeeds, that’s when our middle class succeeds. And when our middle class succeeds, that’s when the United States of America succeeds.”

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin condensed the phrase and tweeted “Tell it to Boeing workers who decertified their union.”

Last week, workers at Boeing’s South Carolina 787 factory voted out representation by the Machinists union. The union represents more than 24,000 Machinists here in the Puget Sound region.

Obama’s remarks and the S.C. workers’ actions are raising important questions: Was the Boeing vote an isolated ousting of unions or is it a trend? What’s the future of organized labor in the U.S.?