05-09-2011, 10:40 PM
Boeing's response:
In a forceful letter sent Tuesday to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), top Boeing lawyer Michael Luttig rejected the labor agency's complaint against the company's opening of a South Carolina 787 plant, writing that the charges "fundamentally misquote or mischaracterize statements by Boeing executives."
The letter frames the dispute between Boeing and the NLRB as a matter of interpreting specific public statements made by Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Jim Albaugh and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney.
Those statements clearly articulate that repeated strikes by the Machinists union were a factor — indeed an "overriding factor," according to Albaugh — in the company's 2009 decision to place a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in North Charleston, S.C., instead of in Everett.
But Luttig's letter argues that this was an economic consideration "entirely permissible under existing law." He rejects the notion that the statements prove Boeing's intent was to "punish" the union work force for strikes in 2005 and 2008.
It is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act for employers to retaliate against workers for engaging in lawful activities, including strikes.
The letter is Boeing's first formal response to the complaint, filed two weeks ago by NLRB acting general counsel Lafe Solomon.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bu...ing05.html
In a forceful letter sent Tuesday to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), top Boeing lawyer Michael Luttig rejected the labor agency's complaint against the company's opening of a South Carolina 787 plant, writing that the charges "fundamentally misquote or mischaracterize statements by Boeing executives."
The letter frames the dispute between Boeing and the NLRB as a matter of interpreting specific public statements made by Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Jim Albaugh and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney.
Those statements clearly articulate that repeated strikes by the Machinists union were a factor — indeed an "overriding factor," according to Albaugh — in the company's 2009 decision to place a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in North Charleston, S.C., instead of in Everett.
But Luttig's letter argues that this was an economic consideration "entirely permissible under existing law." He rejects the notion that the statements prove Boeing's intent was to "punish" the union work force for strikes in 2005 and 2008.
It is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act for employers to retaliate against workers for engaging in lawful activities, including strikes.
The letter is Boeing's first formal response to the complaint, filed two weeks ago by NLRB acting general counsel Lafe Solomon.
...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bu...ing05.html