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GOP Senators, SC Gov. Nikki Haley demand Obama take stand on NLRB Boeing lawsuit
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05/10/11 04:01 PM ET
A group of Republican Senators and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley want President Obama to state his position on the lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board to prevent Boeing from building a new plant in South Carolina instead of labor-friendly Washington state.
South Carolina is a "right-to-work" state, and the NLRB has argued that Boeing wants to build the plant there to retaliate for strikes in its home state of Washington. Haley came to Washington, D.C. Tuesday to attend a Chamber of Commerce press conference supporting Boeing. She was joined by South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint and Rep. Joe Wilson (S.C.), all Republicans, as well as Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ken.).
"The president needs to speak up; we need to see leadership," Haley said Tuesday, according to the Chamber. "This is about American competitiveness."
DeMint likewise casted the lawsuit in stark terms, saying "Every business in America should see this as a personal threat."
The Chamber said it hosted the press conference Tuesday to call attention to the NLRB lawsuit because it was "overreaching."
"The precedent that the NLRB is attempting to establish here is so fundamentally unsound and troublesome that it cannot be ignored,” Chamber Vice President Randy Johnson said in a statement. “The board has chosen to adhere to an ideological agenda rather than sound economic and labor policy and the ramifications could be catastrophic for American job creators.”
Republicans have been using the lawsuit to argue that the Obama administration is too friendly with labor unions. Likely GOP presidential candidate and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty wrote an op-ed criticizing the lawsuit, and he called it "preposterous" in the first GOP debate in South Carolina last week.
Boeing Vice President J. Michael Luttig will testify before a Senate committee this week.
South Carolina is a "right-to-work" state, and the NLRB has argued that Boeing wants to build the plant there to retaliate for strikes in its home state of Washington. Haley came to Washington, D.C. Tuesday to attend a Chamber of Commerce press conference supporting Boeing. She was joined by South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint and Rep. Joe Wilson (S.C.), all Republicans, as well as Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ken.).
"The president needs to speak up; we need to see leadership," Haley said Tuesday, according to the Chamber. "This is about American competitiveness."
DeMint likewise casted the lawsuit in stark terms, saying "Every business in America should see this as a personal threat."
The Chamber said it hosted the press conference Tuesday to call attention to the NLRB lawsuit because it was "overreaching."
"The precedent that the NLRB is attempting to establish here is so fundamentally unsound and troublesome that it cannot be ignored,” Chamber Vice President Randy Johnson said in a statement. “The board has chosen to adhere to an ideological agenda rather than sound economic and labor policy and the ramifications could be catastrophic for American job creators.”
Republicans have been using the lawsuit to argue that the Obama administration is too friendly with labor unions. Likely GOP presidential candidate and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty wrote an op-ed criticizing the lawsuit, and he called it "preposterous" in the first GOP debate in South Carolina last week.
Boeing Vice President J. Michael Luttig will testify before a Senate committee this week.
