The  National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken action against Boeing's production move to South Carolina. Republicans are in meltdown mode... "Tyranny and Socialism", and the best one so far, "enemies list of red states", and it is being shouted from every crazy corner of the web, from the Washington Times, to Fox News, to NewsMax to townhall.com, they shout from every conservative bastion on the web. Oh even Sarah Palin weighed in on the newest evidence that America is being subverted. She rambled pathetically from her facebook page;

“Does the President realize the real concern here is not that businesses will choose to locate in one state over another? It’s that businesses will choose to locate in other countries because thanks to the Obama administration’s job killing policies and over-reaching regulatory boards the business climate in the United States is growing toxic.”

Why did they retaliate, that is the primary question. According to a story in the Seattle Times, Boeing bought the plant in order to discourage future strikes by Boeing Machinsts, who stuck in 2008 over guaranteed benefits for future employees.  The most interesting part of the story in the times is this:

Before Boeing announced where it would build the second 787 line, the company and the union held secret talks over a potential 10-year no-strike agreement.

And yet they've decided to build some of those planes in South Carolina regardless of those talks.

Republicans of course have their panties in a bunch, angry that the NLRB is acting in such a socialist, fascist, communist way! The Washington Post's "Right Turn" insists that this is a terrible development for the President.  Cause you know, people hate unions. I think Jennifer Rubin doesn't pay attention to what is going on around her, but hey that could be just me.

I think this ruling and the fight that will be waged by the right might have a big impact on future of Unions. I know there will be a hearing with a judge. But I don't know how this works from the inside. Is the NLRB routinely ruled against for in favor? I don't know, but I have a feeling this is going to be a very big deal, it probably helps the NLRB that the administrative law judge hearing the case is a Seattle judge and not one in South Carolina. I am curious as to how long this will take and what the odds are that Boeing will have to remove its operations from SC and move them back here.

This particular issue is a big issue here at home. Boeing is a very large part of the economy in Washington State. Not as large as it was in the early 70's when Seattle almost became a ghost town. The economy was bad the, really, really bad.

Most people recognize this picture. Back then between 1967 and 1971 Boeing laid off 62,000 people in the Seattle area. The economy here was crushed, we were the Detroit of America back then. We really almost became a ghost town. Boeing doesn't affect our economy like that anymore, but they remain a very large part of our economy, I think the calculation is 3-4 jobs in the community are supported by 1 Boeing job. So we rely on Boeing as much as they've relied on us over the years, because even though Boeing helped build Seattle, unions helped build a strong Boeing and the company should recognize this and act accordingly.

The NLRB has made a strong stance with this case, and it will be interesting to watch what happens.

Cross posted at Dagblog