The Hill: 'Truth has little role to play' in attacks on NLRB

[Omaha Steve]

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/labor/164235-truth-has-little-role-to-play-in-attacks-on-nlrb

By John Logan - 06/01/11 02:32 PM ET

At first glance, the debonair Barack Obama who had European leaders fawning over him does not appear to have much in common with the gruff Richard Nixon, the only U.S. President to have resigned to avoid impeachment.

But according to conservative critics of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Obama, like Nixon before him, has an “enemies list” and South Carolina and Boeing are on it (somewhere below Osama Bin Laden, presumably – and look what happened to him!).

Echoing the allegations of several right-wing pundits, Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul asked (quite seriously): "Mr. President, do you have an enemies list? ... Are we on your enemies list?”

The facts of the case that provoked Paul's outburst are straightforward. Last month, the NLRB issued a complaint – the first step in a complex process that could last years and go as far as the Supreme Court – against Boeing for expanding production of its 787 Dreamliner at a non-union plant in right-to-work South Carolina rather than at a union plant in Washington state.

Boeing executives explained that they did not want to run the risk of another strike at its unionized Everett, Washington plant. But even in this era of open attacks on labor rights, retaliation against protected activity – in this case the right to strike – is illegal.

This simple action has ignited a firestorm of self-righteous indignation among GOP leaders. Republican Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, believes this amounts to “government-dictated economic larceny” carried out by federal bureaucrats who are “little more than union puppets.”

FULL story at link.