Frum: Labor Law Takes Radical Turn in Boeing Case

On NPR's Marketplace, David Frum discusses the implications of the National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing:

Let's go to the bottom line: the National Labor Relations Board's headline-making complaint against Boeing for investing in South Carolina is almost certainly going nowhere.

The complaint involves Boeing's decision to expand production of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina rather than in Washington. Boeing's union and the NLRB allege that the decision to expand in South Carolina amounts to illegal "retaliation" for past strike activity by Boeing unions.

The NLRB has in the past acted against companies that close one location after a strike in order to open another. But it's unprecedented for the NLRB to act against a company that -- like Boeing -- maintains existing production but expands somewhere else. The NLRB has never before attempted to assert authority over investment and expansion decisions.

For that reason, it's generally believed by labor lawyers that Boeing will prevail, and probably sooner rather than later.

The South Carolina congressional delegation is enraged by the NLRB's action against Boeing's expansion in their state. Senator Lindsay Graham points out that one of the Boeing board members who voted for the South Carolina expansion was William Daley, now President Obama's chief of staff. Is the Obama administration suggesting that its own chief of staff engaged in illegal anti-union retaliation?

But the issue here is not South Carolina. The issue is: what does the NLRB think it is doing by attempting to reinvent labor law in this radical way?

Click here for more.