NLRB sides with union over Boeing site issue

NLRB sides with union over Boeing site issue    The National Labor Relations Board's top lawyer on April 20 issued a complaint against Boeing Co. alleging it violated federal labor law by deciding to transfer a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner to a non-union facility in South Carolina for discriminatory reasons.
   Boeing until recently built all of its planes in Washington state. Several years ago it decided to decentralize production of some major sections and give overseas and domestic suppliers responsibility for making them, with final assembly to be done in Everett, Wash. Boeing stepped in for some tasks after suppliers ran into problems that have delayed initial delivery by nearly three years.
   After a damaging strike by machinists in 2008, Boeing selected South Carolina as the site for a second production to address the growing backlog of orders.
   In repeated statements, company executives cited the unionized employees' past strike activity and the possibility of strikes occurring in the future as the overriding factors in deciding to locate the second line in the non-union facility near Charleston, according to the agency.
   The NLRB said it launched an investigation into the transfer of work in response to a request by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It found 'reasonable cause' to believe Boeing had violated two sections of the National Labor Relations Act because its statements 'were coercive to employees and its actions were motivated by a desire to retaliate for past strikes and chill future strike activity.'
   It pointed to a Seattle Times videotaped interview in which a senior Boeing executive said the primary reason for the move was not the business climate or wages, but the fact that the airplane manufacturer could not afford ongoing work stoppages.
   But in its formal response to the NLRB, Boeing said the decision to place the assembly line in South Carolina was based on the favorable business environment there, significant financial incentives from the state, the need for geographic diversity of its commercial airline operations, as well as to ensure production stability.
   'In any event, even ascribing an intent to Boeing that it placed the second line in North Charleston so as to mitigate the harmful economic effects of an anticipated future strike would not be evidence that the decision to place the second assembly line in North Charleston was designed to retaliate against the IAM for past strikes. Nevertheless, Boeing would have made the same decision with respect to the placement of the second assembly line in North Charleston even if it had not taken into consideration the damaging impact of future strikes on the production of 787s,' the airplane manufacturer said.
   The union also charged the company with failing to negotiate over the decision to transfer the production line, but the NLRB did not agree that Boeing failed to bargain in good faith because the union had waived its right to bargain on the issue in its collective bargaining agreement.
   Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon said he is seeking an order that would require Boeing to maintain the second production line in Washington to remedy the alleged unfair labor practices. His complaint does not seek to close the South Carolina facility or prohibit Boeing from assembling planes there.
   Boeing said the proposed order is unfair and would effectively cause it to shut down the South Carolina facility.
   'We'll do everything in our power to oppose the National Labor Relations Board's attempt to prevent Boeing from building their new 787 at its nearly completed plant in South Carolina and forcing them to build the plane in Washington state,' U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donahue recently said at the business federation's 10th annual aviation summit in Washington, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
   'We are on a slippery slope when the government attempts to interfere in legal, legitimate and reasonable decisions so it can reward politically favored groups,' he said, in reference to union support for the Democratic administration.
   South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a group of Senate Republicans and other business leaders also voiced deep concern with the NLRB decision during a May 10 press conference at the chamber's headquarters in Washington.
   'This is one of the worst examples I've ever seen of unelected bureaucrats doing the bidding of special interest groups,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in remarks posted on the chamber's Web site. 'Left to their own devices, the NLRB would routinely punish right-to-work states like South Carolina ' '
   Haley and the lawmakers demanded that the Obama administration get involved in the situation, which they said threatened thousands of jobs in the state and free enterprise.
   Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said he plans to drop legislation that would protect right-to-work states from federal intrusion over labor disputes.
   Solomon encouraged the two sides to reach a settlement or the case would go before an administrative law judge in Seattle on June 14.

Cargo outperformed passengers in March
   Air freight volume increased to 3.7 percent in March from a year ago, marking an improvement from the 1.8 percent year-over-year growth airlines experienced in February, according to the International Air Transport Association.
   Passenger traffic headed in the opposite direction, with growth slowing to 3.8 percent compared to March 2010, and down from 5.8 percent growth in February from a year ago. On a sequential monthly basis, global passenger demand fell 0.3 percent while cargo demand expanded 4.5 percent.
   The industry organization attributed the decline to the devastating triple disaster in Japan and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
   From the second half of 2010 until January 2011, international air freight expanded in tandem with the growth in world trade at an annualized rate of about 10 percent, IATA said. This was dented in February when growth fell to 1.8 percent over the same month in the previous year.
   Asia-Pacific carriers, which account for 43 percent of global freight markets, saw air freight demand contract by 0.6 percent in March compared to the previous year. That was considerably better than the 5.4 percent fall in February, which was exceptionally depressed due to plant closures associated with the Chinese New Year, IATA said. Compared to February, freight demand actually improved 8.2 percent. Were it not for the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the rebound would have been much stronger, it said.