Washington, DC (June 8, 2011) – Yesterday, Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, International Association of Machinist (IAM) union lawyers, and Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) attorneys responded to a motion filed by three North Charleston Boeing employees seeking to intervene in the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) case against Boeing.
The North Charleston employees are receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The NLRB’s complaint, if successful, would almost certainly eliminate thousands of jobs in South Carolina, including those of the three Boeing workers represented by Foundation attorneys.
Foundation President Mark Mix released the following statement in response to the Acting General Counsel’s and IAM union lawyers’ opposition to the employees’ motion:
“Acting General Counsel Solomon’s and the IAM union lawyers’ opposition to the Charleston employees’ motion to intervene in the NLRB’s persecution of Boeing is a slap in the face of all independent-minded American workers and citizens who support duly-enacted Right to Work laws in their states that protect employees’ choice over whether or not to financially support a union.
“Solomon’s argument that the South Carolina workers have no stake in the shutdown of the facility in which they are employed is a disingenuous attempt to silence workers whose very livelihoods are in jeopardy. This is a bald-faced lie of Weiner-esque proportions.
“Essentially, what Solomon and IAM union officials want is for workers to sit down and shut up, even though their jobs are on the line and their rights are at issue.
“The opposition of Solomon and IAM union bosses to these courageous employees’ attempt to save their jobs and their community is just another cynical action by Big Labor and its political cronies to silence independent-minded workers and further empower union bosses to force more workers to submit to union boss demands and forced dues payment.”
In contrast, Boeing attorneys filed a brief supporting the employees’ intervention in the case, observing that “[the intervening employees] have a direct interest in the outcome of the case.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.