Boeing CEO tapped to lead Business Roundtable

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney has been appointed chairman of a Washington-based business group.

The Business Roundtable, which criticized a federal labor board's complaint against the airplane manufacturer, announced Thursday that McNerney would assume control of the group on Sept. 1.

McNerney said he was honored to be picked.

 “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the business community as we continue to engage policymakers from both parties to ensure that American workers and American businesses prosper together," he said.

McNerney's company has been embroiled in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint alleging that the company decided to build a plant that would produce 787 airplanes in South Carolina in retaliation for labor strikes by workers at its Puget Sound plant near Seattle. The Business Roundtable has called on the NLRB to drop the complaint.

"It has no legal basis and represents a drastic departure from NLRB and Supreme Court precedent," Business Roundtable President John Engler sand in a statement in April. "We strongly encourage the NLRB to follow current federal law and go to Congress if they wish to change that law. Finally, the NLRB should recognize that all of the President's appointees have a responsibility to help strengthen the U.S. economy, and that must override the temptation to do political favors."

Conservatives have used McNerney's service on President Obama's Export Council, which he is also chairman of, to suggest that Boeing's labor practices cannot be illegal.