Latest News - December 2011
December 19, 2011
Oversight committee: NLRB investigation will continue
Source: Charleston Regional Business Journal
By: Matt Tomsic
The House Oversight Committee is continuing its investigation into the National Labor Relations Board despite the board’s dismissal of a complaint against the Boeing Co. in early December, when the aerospace company’s labor union ratified a new labor deal in Washington state.
The committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, informed the NLRB of its decision in a letter last Wednesday to Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon.
Nancy Cleeland, a spokeswoman for the NLRB, issued this statement: “The agency has cooperated with Chairman Issa and committee staff from the beginning, and will continue to do so.”
The oversight committee began its investigation in May, when it requested documentation about the NLRB’s complaint against Boeing for opening a 787 final assembly and delivery center in North Charleston. Since then, the committee held a hearing in North Charleston and traded letters with the NLRB, which withheld some documents because of the pending complaint.
The NLRB announced the complaint’s withdrawal on Dec. 9, two days after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ratified a new four-year contract with Boeing. During a conference call, Solomon said the new contract addressed the Machinists union’s grievances, which led the union to file a charge against Boeing. The NLRB then investigated the charge and filed its complaint.
The Machinists union also called for the labor relations board to drop the complaint following the contract’s ratification.
In Issa’s letter last week, he said the committee also will investigate the NLRB’s role in the contract negotiation between Boeing and the Machinists union.
“To ensure that filing the complaint was not a strategic maneuver to provide IAM with leverage for a new collective bargaining agreement with Boeing, the committee also seeks information about the NLRB’s involvement in those negotiations,” the letter states.
On Dec. 9, Solomon said the NLRB was not involved in the negotiations. Issa, R-Calif., also requested the documents be delivered by Jan. 3.
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