Well, here’s a nice acid test on how you feel about unions and economic development. See what you think of this:
NLRB files complaint against Boeing over N. Charleston plant
By Matt Tomsic
mtomsic@scbiznews.comThe National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint today, calling for Boeing to open a second 787 final assembly line in Washington state to remedy what it calls an illegal transfer of work to non-union facilities in North Charleston.
Boeing is building a multi-million dollar facility near Charleston International Airport to complement its first final assembly line in the Seattle area.
The board is pursuing an order to require Boeing to maintain a second assembly line in Washington state, though the complaint does not ask for the line in South Carolina to be closed, according to a news release from the NLRB….
You know, I’m not sure the federal gummint wants to pull something like this on SC so soon after the anniversary of our firing on Fort Sumter.
Nice of the NLRB not to “ask for” Boeing to shut down in SC. No, it’s just saying the company has to open a line it doesn’t need.
Wow. I’m with Lindsey Graham on this one:
“This is one of the worst examples of unelected bureaucrats doing the bidding of special interest groups that I’ve ever seen,” Graham said in a statement emailed from his office. “In this case, the (National Labor Relations Board) is doing the bidding of the unions at great cost to South Carolina and our nation’s economy.”
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It’s cute of Senator Graham to refer to American workers as a “special-interest group.” And as far as “unelected bureaucrats” go, you could say the same of federal court officials, including the SCOTUS. All these are appointed by the President.
In the end it all depends on where you are standing, of course. For people hoping to get jobs here in SC, anything that threatens to impede or derail that seems terrible, and to that extent one would expect SC’s senators to stand up for the locals. If you are a worker in Washington state, you see the move to SC the same way workers in other industries (in SC or elsewhere) view the moves by various companies to take jobs overseas. But if you are a worker in India, for example, you would also view any bureaucratic or legislative effort in the US to impede that corporation’s move to find cheaper labor as an assault on your opportunity to find good work.
Typical Graham. He always supports the ultra rich corporate elitists. It’s no wonder South Carolinians earn so little compared to other states. The rationale for keeping unions out of the state has always been to create jobs. So why does SC have such a high unemployment rate? Seems like we have the worst of both worlds, low wages AND high unemployment. And thanks to the likes of plutocrats like Lindsey Graham it’s likely to remain that way.
@bud
We don’t have the jobs because we have a very large population of unskilled people who have either dropped out of school or are too dependent on government assistance to try and improve themselves. It’s a self-inflicted wound.
@ Doug– How can someone be “dependent on government assistance” unless s/he is a minor, disabled or elderly? There is no longer any “government assistance” that lasts more than two years, otherwise.
Oh, yeah, I forgot corporations…
Yeah, I keep wondering why we keep hearing about Reagan’s “welfare queens,” so long after the end of AFDC…
There’s TANF, but last I heard, that involved far fewer people than the old unlamented “welfare,” and for less time…
@Kathryn
Seriously? Do food stamps and Medicaid have two year limits? Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think so.
Doug,
See why we need good schools throughout the state? Under educated = under employed.
Boeing was a big win because its a manufacturer that needs an educated workforce.
You can’t rely solely on food stamps and Medicaid so that you wouldn’t want to “try and improve” yourself. You still have to come up with somewhere to live, for example, and pay utilities.
Where they live is Section 8 housing. I know someone who lived in one of the new apartments outside of Lexington and was paying $1100/month, the apartment below her was a woman and her two kids in a 3-bedroom apartment and her rent was paid for by the government. I’m sure she had some sort of assistance to pay her utility bill too… because I don’t think the A/C or heat was shut off. This went on for at least three years while my friend lived there, and the woman and her kids are probably still there.