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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Labor Board Plays Fast And Loose In Boeing Case

Boeing executive vice president and general counsel Michael Luttig also happens to be a former federal judge who was on the White House short list for a Supreme Court appointment under President George W. Bush, so it is difficult to dismiss him as merely a self-interested corporate pleader. Luttig's recent letter to National Labor Relations Board acting general counsel Lafe Solomon accusing the NLRB of mischaracterizing and misquoting decisions by Boeing and statements by the company's top executives raises some especially disturbing questions.

"A number of these statements, which are critical to your case against Boeing, fundamentally misquote or mischaracterize statements by Boeing executives and actions taken by the Company," Michael Luttig wrote in the letter, which was first reported Tuesday by The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein. "You have a responsibility to correct these misquotations and mischaracterizations, for the public record and also for purposes of the complaint you have filed. Through these misquotations and mischaracterizations, you have done a grave disservice to The Boeing Company, its executives and shareholders, and to the 160,000 Boeing employees worldwide. And, of course, you have filed a complaint based upon these misstatements that cannot be credibly maintained under law."

To cite just three errors of fact described in Luttig's letter: First, Boeing did not, as alleged by NLRB, "transfer" any existing work being done by unionized employees in Washington state to the new plant in South Carolina. Second, the board complaint misquoted Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh as saying the prospect of "future strikes" was a prime reason for the move to South Carolina. Third, the NLRB cannot quote any Boeing executive saying the South Carolina decision intended to "punish" the company's unionized employees because none made such a statement, according to Luttig.

More at the Washington Examiner

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Between 1995 and 2005, private-sector jobs in Right to Work states like South Carolina increased by a net 20.2%. That’s a 79% greater increase than the relatively small increase in private-sector jobs experienced by non-Right to Work states like Washington and Maryland over the same period.