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NLRB issues complaint over Boeing’s move to S. Carolina
SEATTLE — A complaint April 20
by the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) against the Boeing Co. is a vic-
tory for all American workers — partic-
ularly aerospace workers in Puget
Sound and South Carolina, officials
with the International Association of
Machinists (IAM) said.
NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe
Solomon issued the complaint, which
asserts that Boeing’s decision in 2009
to locate a Dreamliner 787 final assem-
bly line in right-to-work North
Charleston, S.C., represented illegal re-
taliation against IAM members who
work for the company. The NLRB is
seeking a court order requiring Boeing
to operate the second 787 line, includ-
ing supply lines, with union workers in
the Puget Sound.
“Boeing’s decision to build a 787 as-
sembly line in South Carolina sent a
message that Boeing workers would
suffer financial harm for exercising their
collective bargaining rights,” said IAM
Vice President Rich Michalski. “Fed-
eral labor law is clear: It’s illegal to
threaten or penalize workers who en-
gage in concerted activity.”
The decision by Boeing to locate the
assembly line in South Carolina fol-
lowed years of 787 production delays
and an extraordinary round of mid-con-
tract talks in which the IAM proposed
an 11-year agreement to provide Boe-
ing with the labor stability it claimed
was necessary to keep 787 production
in the Puget Sound area.
The board’s action reinforces the fact
that “workers have a right to join a
union, and companies don’t have a right
to punish them for engaging in legal
union activities,” said Tom Wroblewski,
president of Machinists District Lodge
751 in Seattle, which represents Boeing
workers.
“Taking work away from workers
because they exercise their union rights
is against the law, and it’s against the
law in all 50 states,” Wroblewski said.
The Board’s complaint comes in re-
sponse to an unfair labor practice
charge filed in March 2010 by District
751. Portland-based Machinists Lodge
63, which represents 1,000 employees
at Boeing’s parts plant in Gresham, also
was party to the complaint.
As a remedy, the NLRB’s Solomon
demanded that Boeing bring the
Dreamliner’s second assembly line and
the sourcing back to the plants in the Pa-
cific Northwest.
Boeing “made coercive statements
to its employees that it would remove
or had removed work from the (bar-
gaining) unit because employees had
struck and (Boeing) threatened or im-
pliedly threatened the unit would lose
additional work in the event of future
strikes,” the NLRB said.
The labor agency counted five such
public statements by Boeing brass.
Leading the parade was Boeing
CEO James McNerney on Oct. 21,
2009. “In a quarterly earnings confer-
ence call that was posted on Boeing's
intranet website for all employees and
reported in the Seattle Post Intelligencer
Aerospace News and quoted in the
Seattle Times,” McNerney “made an
extended statement regarding ‘diversi-
fying Boeing’s labor pool and labor re-
lationship,’ and moving the 787 Dream-
liner work to South Carolina due to
‘strikes happening every three to four
years in Puget Sound,’ ” the NLRB re-
ported.
The statements and the move of pro-
duction and sourcing for the Dreamliner
to North Charleston was “because the
unit employees assisted and/or sup-
ported the union by engaging in the pro-
tected, concerted activity of lawful
strikes and to discourage these and/or
other employees from engaging in these
or other union and/or protected, con-
certed activities,” the NLRB said.
“Had we allowed Boeing to break
the law and go unchecked in their ac-
tions, it would have given the green
light for corporate America to discrim-
inate against union members and would
have become management’s new strate-
gic template to attack employees,”
Wroblewski added.
The NLRB’s Solomon said “a
worker’s right to strike is a fundamental
right guaranteed by the National Labor
Relations Act. We also recognize the
rights of employers to make business
decisions based on their economic in-
terests, but they must do so within the
law.”
An NLRB administrative law judge
in Seattle will hold a formal hearing on
June 14 on Solomon’s charge against
Boeing.
(Editor’s Note: The AFL-CIO Now
News Blog and Press Associates Inc.
contributed to this report.)
NLRB investigates rash of worker firings for Facebook posts
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
In an online post to her friends on
Facebook, Rabecca Forbes vented
about her job.
It came to the attention of her em-
ployer, Rock Creek Veterinary Hospi-
tal in Aloha, Oregon, and Forbes was
fired April 1. Two of her co-workers —
Kathy Erickson and Amanda Meyers
— also were disciplined, for sympa-
thetic comments they made on Face-
book in response to Forbes’ post.
Such incidents are becoming in-
creasingly common, says Sarah
Drescher, a labor lawyer at Tedesco
Law Group in Lake Oswego. Drescher
has represented workers in similar
cases, and spoke on a panel at an April
20-21 conference on “Discipline in the
Age of Social Media” organized by the
Oregon chapter of the Labor and Em-
ployment Relations Association
(LERA).
“More and more people are using
social media on a daily basis,” Drescher
said. “It’s become a means of commu-
nication just like the phone used to be.”
Except that, unlike telephone re-
marks, statements posted on Facebook
can remain out there for anyone to see.
Forbes has taken down the Face-
book post that got her fired. But she
also filed a complaint with the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB), argu-
ing that Rock Creek Veterinary Hospi-
tal violated federal labor law when it
disciplined her and her co-workers for
what they said on Facebook.
Such Facebook posts could be con-
sidered “protected concerted activity”
under the National Labor Relations
Act, the law that the NLRB enforces.
That law makes it a federally protected
right for two or more employees to dis-
cuss pay or other work-related issues
with each other — whether they’re in a
union or not.
NLRB currently has six such cases
before its Seattle regional director
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alone.
“It’s an emerging issue,” says
NLRB Seattle Regional Director Rich
Ahearn. “But from our perspective, it’s
really no different than if these com-
ments were made at the water cooler.”
Last October the NLRB took the
position — for the first time — that a
worker’s Facebook posting was pro-
tected activity. American Medical Re-
sponse of Connecticut had fired para-
medic Dawnmarie Souza, a member of
the Teamsters, after she complained on
Facebook about a supervisor. Souza
used impolite language, calling him a
“17” — paramedic code for a psychi-
atric patient. Co-workers, and even a
supervisor, joined in and commented
approvingly, and Souza responded to
their comments.
AMR reached a settlement with
Souza and the NLRB in February
2011. In the settlement, the company
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
pledged to revise its over-broad rules
about blogging, Internet posting, and
communications between employees,
and promised not to discipline or dis-
charge employees for discussing work
issues when not on the job.
“Whatever protection exists in the
workplace also exists in cyberspace,”
Ahearn said.
Of course, that means union work-
ers may have better protection than
nonunion workers. In Oregon and most
states, nonunion workers (like the fired
veterinary hospital worker) are consid-
ered “at will” employees, which means
employers don’t have to give a reason
for terminating their employment. By
contrast, union contracts almost always
require employers to have “just cause”
before they discipline a worker.
Ahearn said the law doesn’t give
workers a license to make unfounded
accusations, but simply complaining
about work is likely to be considered
protected activity.
For her part, Drescher advises work-
ers to be cautious.
“To avoid problems and make your
life easier, don’t put your co-workers
and supervisors on as your friends on
Facebook,” Drescher says. “I had a
case last year that if the employee had
taken that advice, she’d still have her
job. People have different sensibilities
of what’s inappropriate and what’s not,
and you take some risks if you put
things on Facebook — pictures or
statements — that co-workers may find
offensive morally and will complain
about to an employer.”
UFCW’s Witt explores possible
congressional race against Wu
ASTORIA — Union member Brad
Witt will form an exploratory commit-
tee as he considers a possible primary
challenge to Congressman David Wu
in Oregon’s 1st District.
A union representative for United
Food and Commercial Workers Local
555 and a Democratic state rep in
House District 31, Witt made the an-
nouncement April 30 at the Oregon
Machinists Council’s (OMC) meeting.
Wu also spoke at the meeting.
“I’ve had some encouragement to
run,” Witt said. “I want to take a good
solid look at what the prospects are.”
Wu has been under media scrutiny
since his re-election last November for
erratic behavior prior to the election that
led several key staff members to quit.
Wu avowed having a bad reaction to
painkillers and being under tremendous
stress following the breakup of his mar-
riage. He said he has sought profes-
sional help and that things are better.
“The 1st Congressional District de-
serves decent representation, solid rep-
resentation. I don’t think that is hap-
pening right now,” Witt told OMC
delegates.
Witt emphasized that his immediate
priority is representing constituents in
District 31, which stretches 90 miles
along the Columbia River from Sauvie
Island to Astoria. “But if polling shows
a green light, I’ll have to lay some
groundwork,” he said.
Witt said to have any chance he will
need most of labor’s support. “This
union (Machinists) has backed me in
every single race I’ve been in, including
secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. If I
don’t have your support, there is no rea-
son for me to even think about it.”
Witt served as secretary-treasurer of
the Oregon AFL-CIO for 14 years. He
also was on staff at the Western Coun-
cil of Industrial Workers (now the Car-
penters Industrial Council).
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