Gingrich in S.C.: Boeing lawsuit proof of 'corrupting nature of big government'

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday in a speech in crucial 2012 primary state South Carolina that the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing was proof of big government's ability to destroy jobs.

Speaking at the Five Points Rotary Club, Gingrich slammed the NLRB, which has sued Boeing for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

Gingrich said Friday the lawsuit was an "illegal action" that "puts all those jobs at risk."

"Here in South Carolina you are witnessing first hand and up close another glaring proof of the corrupting nature of big government and it ability to destroy jobs," Gingrich said in prepared remarks released by his campaign. "I’m speaking, of course, about the effort by the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board to stop Boeing’s Dreamliner plant from opening up in Charleston."

"The facts are well known by everybody in South Carolina and are beginning to be known across America," he said.

Gingrich said the lawsuit would cause companies who are looking to invest in right-to-work states to look oversees.

"If the Obama administration’s hand-picked NLRB is successful in blocking the opening of the Boeing plant in South Carolina, it won’t just be South Carolina that suffers," he said. "Such a ruling would put tens of millions of future jobs in all 22 right-to-work states in jeopardy.  It would make it effectively impossible for U.S. companies to choose to open new facilities in right-to-work states if they are currently located in a state that allows forced unionization."  

Gingrich concluded by saying the lawsuit made it clear that "President Obama is stacking the deck against South Carolina and other right to work states at the behest of his union allies."

"This complaint is an explicit and devastating example of the Obama administration’s reckless and dangerous use of the power of big government to reward its political backers," he said.

Gingrich is one of several GOP presidential hopefuls who have picked up on criticizing the lawsuit, was has riled South Carolina Republicans, because South Carolina is an early 2012 primary state. 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said it was as intrusive as to the federal healthcare law that is anathema to GOP activists, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called it "preposterous" in a recent debate in South Carolina.

Pawlenty also penned an op-ed against it in the conservative National Review.