IAM-represented employees at Boeing in Washington State have always ensured the prosperity of their employer by building the best commercial airliners in the world.  However, when Boeing announced that its main reason for moving a substantial amount of 787 Dreamliner assembly to South Carolina was that those employees had exercised rights guaranteed to them under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), that was illegal retaliation – a clear violation of federal law.  Now, having to face the music, Boeing and its allies are attacking not only working families but also the law that protects them.

Facts and Misconceptions

• This is a very simple case.  It is undisputed that Boeing workers in State of Washington engaged in negotiations and other collective activity that the law protects.  Boeing announced in the press that it was moving a substantial part of their assembly work on the company’s new 787 Dreamliner to South Carolina because of that activity.  That constituted illegal retaliation, and that is what the NLRB complaint charged.

• Boeing is not above the law.  The NLRB is charged with enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).  It investigated the facts and the law thoroughly before issuing the complaint, and a hearing is scheduled.  Let’s see what due process produces instead of trying this case in the press or on the floor of Congress.

• Many company statements show that retaliation.  The link below, while long, is Boeing CEO Jim Albaugh in an interview with the Seattle Times (3/2/2010), in which he clearly states the company’s retaliatory motive:
  
  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011237525_albaughvideo.html

 

Background Information

• The National Labor Relations Act protects workers when they act together to improve their work lives for themselves and their families.  It also prohibits employers from coercing, intimidating or retaliating against their workers who engage in protected rights.  Often called the Wagner Act, it applies equally in all 50 states and has been the law of the land since 1935.

• The next step is the NRLB to conduct a hearing before an administrative law judge, who will hear evidence in a hearing on the record.  Boeing will have full opportunity to present its arguments on the facts and the law.  Following the ALJ’s ruling, the losing party may appeal to the 5-member National Labor Relations Board and then to a U.S. Court of Appeals.