The Washington Times caught up with Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat and Assistant House Minority Leader, on Tuesday and asked if he believed if Boeing broke any labor laws that the National Labor Relations Board cited in their lawsuit against the plane maker.
The South Carolina Democrat flat out told us, "No. I don't." Mr. Clyburn is not the first Democrat to come out against this move by the Obama administration. According to Red State, William Gould IV, Bill Clinton's NLRB Chairman is opposes to the lawsuit that interprets Boeing's plant in South Carolina as a retaliatory move against the unions.
Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, has struck back as well. The Hill is reporting he is blocking an Obama Commerce nominee over the lawsuit against Boeing, saying:
“I’m not going to let this Secretary of Commerce nomination go forward until the Obama administration speaks out on behalf of Boeing,” Graham said in an interview the CBS station in Spartanburg, S.C., WSPA TV-7.
“Boeing did nothing wrong," he continued. "We earned the right to make their planes, build their planes in South Carolina, and nobody is going to take that away from our state.”
Now the hearings on the hill begin. Greenville Online, a local South Carolina outlet reports:
A National Labor Relations Board action against The Boeing Co. over the company’s decision to build 787 Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina will be the subject of a congressional field hearing on Friday.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold the hearing in North Charleston to examine factors behind the NLRB’s recent decision to take legal action against Boeing after it built a new assembly plant that will employ 4,000 workers in Charleston.
South Carolina elected and business officials believe that if the NLRB is successful, it could set “a chilling precedent” for employers who seek to expand manufacturing to locations outside the influence of labor unions.
President Obama may find himself in a lonely place here regarding unions. House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, recently came out against the president on mandating federal contractors who apply for jobs to release their political contribution information but exempt the union contractors.
Now the president must choose sides yet again and it can't just be against that nasty old GOP he likes to blame so often.
The South Carolina Democrat flat out told us, "No. I don't." Mr. Clyburn is not the first Democrat to come out against this move by the Obama administration. According to Red State, William Gould IV, Bill Clinton's NLRB Chairman is opposes to the lawsuit that interprets Boeing's plant in South Carolina as a retaliatory move against the unions.
Hmmmm, and I just read JW telling us that all Democrats think alike.
Parochial interests will always trump everything else in politics.
I live in Washington. Washington is a pretty nice place to live. There isn't any person income tax. There isn't any corporate tax (but there is a very simple and very low business and occupation tax). There is a real entrepreneurial spirit here.
There are two problems:
A.) There are anti-growth politicians here that refuse to do anything to accommodate the growth that has already occurred, let alone facilitate new growth. Fortunately, the biggest crap head of them all (King County Exec Ron Simms) took a job with the Obama Administration, and as soon as he left, we started working to improve the infrastructure again for the first time in 20 years.
B.) The Machinists Union at Boeing is about as dumb as any union anywhere.
A and B forced Boeing to open their second Dreamliner assembly line somewhere else.
I want them to stay in Washington, but I cannot blame them for their decision.
