Friday, June 17, 2011

We Have to Destroy Jobs to Save Them.

Boeing has invested $750M in the construction of a new assembly plant to produce the 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina. It is expected that over 3000-4000 high value-added, high-paying jobs will be created by Boeing in South Carolina, not including the knock-on effect of additional job creation by others to support this effort. Boeing's effort is the largest business development project in the history of South Carolina.

However, the National Labor Relations Board has decided to sue Boeing to stop them from locating Dreamliner production in South Carolina, claiming that Boeing's decision was in retaliation for a 2008 employee strike, and is circumventing labor law. Indeed, public comments by Boeing management referred to the disruption of production during the strike as one factor in consideration in the South Carolina decision.

However, some facts contradict the NLRB claim: Boeing employees in South Carolina recently voted to leave the IAMAW, the aerospace workers union, and only after that event was a complaint lodged with the NLRB. Boeing's is expanding plane production, adding 2000 jobs to the Seattle area, and no jobs are being transferred to right-to-work South Carolina.

With the addition of Craig Becker to the NLRB, former counsel to the SEIU, and a vocal advocate for radical government intervention in support of organized labor, can we expect further initiatives in job creation strangled in the crib by the union's hunger for additional membership and power?