Kyle Wingfield of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution absolutely demolishes a misleading Wall Street Journal op-ed in favor of the NLRB’s efforts to shut down Boeing’s South Carolina Dreamliner facilities. First, Wingfield addresses the claim that choosing Charleston as a production site hurts Boeing’s Seattle-based employees:

The word “move” is key, because pro-labor people like Geoghegan have depicted Boeing’s decision to open a production line for its 787 Dreamliner jet in North Charleston, S.C., as a loss to workers in Seattle. In fact, this is a new production line; the existing production line will remain in place.

I’m sure the workers in Seattle — or, more precisely, the union leaders whom their union dues pay — would have liked for the new jobs to be in Seattle (in addition to the 2,000 jobs Boeing has added there despite its alleged hostility to unions there, but I digress). Geoghegan, however, is trying to suggest workers in Seattle are losing something they never had. That’s never true.

Wingfield also points out that Boeing’s Charleston employees have more disposable income than their Seattle counterparts after adjusting for cost-of-living, an advantage that can be partly attributed to South Carolina’s popular Right to Work law, which makes union dues and membership strictly voluntary.

Wingfield concludes, "If this is the best argument union allies can make in the Boeing case,
it’s no wonder private-sector labor unions are such dying dinosaurs."