Labor/Employment

Judicial Watch, like Republican critics of the lawsuit in Congress, argues that the NLRB’s case against Boeing is politically motivated.

The Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said a union protesting his district office over the absence of a long-term funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is "being used as pawns and doped tools" by Democrats. 

Members of the union that represents flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), reportedly held a demonstration outside Mica's Florida office to call for Congress to pass a longer bill for the FAA than the measure it approved this month, which provides money for the agency only until September. About 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed for nearly two weeks earlier this month when Congress could not agree on passing the short-term measure, which was originally intended to buy time for a longer law that is being bogged down by labor provisions.
 
"They're being used as pawns and doped tools in a larger national debate," Mica said in an interview with Florida radio station WMFE that is scheduled to air Tuesday morning. "I feel kind of pity for them by the way they've been abused by the leadership in Washington."

Rep. Darrell Issa on Friday described the National Labor Relations Board as a “rogue agency.” 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should withdraw subpoenas he issued for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a trio of veteran Democratic lawmakers said Friday.

Over the objection of Democrats on his own House Oversight Committee, Issa subpoenaed the labor oversight panel after saying the NLRB did not provide enough documents for his investigation into the panel's case against Boeing. The NLRB argues that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

But in a letter to Issa released Friday, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), George Miller (D-Calif.) and John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said the chairman should let the legal proceeding run its course.

"We are writing to request that you withdraw the unilateral subpoena you served on Sunday to the National Labor Relations Board in light of a recent court ruling that effectively eliminates the purported basis for the committee's investigation," the Democrats wrote, referring to Seattle Administrative Law Judge Clifford Anderson's ruling in June against a motion to dismiss the NLRB case from Boeing.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is right to issue subpoenas for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board’s legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a pair of newspaper editorial boards said this week.

Issa has launched an investigation into the labor oversight panel’s case against Boeing. The NLRB argues that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

Issa has said the case appears politically motivated, an idea with which the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review agreed.

“By subpoenaing documents from the National Labor Relations Board’s lawsuit against Boeing Co., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is appropriately pressuring the Democrat-dominated NLRB, which is intolerably pressuring businesses’ freedom to locate where they wish,” the paper opined Thursday.

The NLRB is obligated to get the documents to the Oversight Committee no later than noon Aug. 12.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should not issue subpoenas for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board's legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a group of legal experts said Friday.

Thirty-four law professors signed a letter to Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, saying he should let the case proceed with requesting documents from the NLRB.

The labor oversight panel has alleged that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state. Issa has launched an investigation into the case, saying it appears to be politically motivated.

The National Labor Relations Board said this week that a Seattle judge's ruling that its case against airplane manufacturer Boeing should go forward supported its contention that documents about the issue should be made available to a congressional oversight committee only as they come out in the case.

Administrative Law Judge Clifford Anderson rejected a motion from Boeing last month to dismiss the NLRB case, which alleges that the company decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has launched an investigation into the case, saying it appears to be politically motivated. Issa has threatened to subpoena documents about the case, but the NLRB has said it would provide only "discoverable" information.

In a letter to Issa that was obtained by The Hill, NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon said Anderson's ruling showed the panel's stance was correct.

"It remains my belief that premature disclosure of the Boeing case file would severely impact the parties' due process rights and the Agency's legal process," he wrote to Issa in a letter dated Tuesday. 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday that Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should hold a vote before he subpoenas documents from the National Labor Relations Board's case against airplane manufacturer Boeing.

Issa has threatened to use his committee's subpoena power to get more documents from the NLRB about its legal complaint against Boeing. In the complaint, the NLRB alleges that Boeing 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.

In a letter to Issa Tuesday, Democrats on the Oversight Committee acknowledged Issa had the power to unilaterally issue subpoenas, but said he shouldn't do so without taking the temperature of his committee members first.

"There is no dispute that you have authority under the House Rules to issue a unilateral subpoena to further legitimate oversight efforts by the Committee,” the Democrats wrote in their letter. “But you also have an obligation to use this power responsibly and not to exercise it to affect the outcome of an ongoing legal proceeding.”

Rep. John Kline said the board's complaint against Boeing could make companies think twice about investing in the United States.