Having posted extensively on the Machinists’ union smokescreen at Boeing, there is some sense of satisfaction in knowing that Boeing’s union-free employees in South Carolina are not letting the union get away with retaliating against them for choosing to be union-free.
Indeed, were it not for the fact that the once-unionized Boeing employees in South Carolina kicked the Machinists union out of their workplace, the union would likely never have filed a charge against Boeing for locating the 787 work in South Carolina.
Well, with free legal help from the National Right to Work Foundation, three Boeing employees filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the International Association of Machinists on Wednesday.
From the National Right to Work Foundation’s press release:
The charge spells out how IAM union bosses abused the NLRB’s adjudicative process to bully Boeing into locating production of the company’s 737 Max and future airplane production in Washington State, which does not have a Right to Work law. The IAM union bosses’ accusations against Boeing had a chilling effect on Boeing and other companies, deterring them from locating work in South Carolina and other Right to Work states where workers can not be forced to join or pay fees to a union as a job condition.
The charge also details how IAM union bosses retaliated against the Charleston workers after the workers at the Boeing Dreamliner plant expelled the IAM from their workplace before the production line was located there. One of the employees filing the charge led the effort to remove the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union from the Charleston plant.
The charge points out that if the IAM union hierarchy still had a presence in the South Carolina plant, then the South Carolina workers’ jobs would not have been at risk. Even NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon – who issued the NLRB’s complaint against Boeing – admitted in Congressional testimony that it was inconceivable that IAM union officials would have pursued charges against Boeing if workers had not removed the union from their workplace.
Of course, the statement attributed to the NLRB’s acting general counsel (the person whose role it was to prosecute Boeing) is what has been stated on numerous occasions.
If the work had gone to any of Boeing’s already union-represented facilities, would the Machinists’ union have filed charges against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against the union? Probably not.
What then of the employees in South Carolina?
Were they not exercising their legal rights to refrain from union activity by decertifying the Machinists?
If the union’s failure to keep the Boeing workers unionized in South Carolina gave them the impetus to pursue charges against Boeing when South Carolina was awarded the work, was not the filing of the charge against Boeing retaliating against the South Carolina workers for choosing to become union-free?
If there is an ounce of independence left at Obama’s NLRB, it should be easy to prove the union’s unlawful retaliation.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com
Image credit: SeattleEYE
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