IAM 751: Boeing, allies ‘bumrushing’ the law

The Boeing Co. and its allies in Congress have mounted an aggressive political and media campaign to try to circumvent judicial proceedings initiated by the National Labor Relations Board on whether the company illegally shifted 787 assembly work to South Carolina in retaliation for employee strikes in Washington state.

This morning, Boeing’s aggressive campaign to pressure the NLRB to drop charges took center stage at a congressional hearing ostensibly about the shrinking middle class.

The highlight may have been when Boeing’s top attorney, J. Michael Luttig, was asked to defend his $3.7 million pay package in 2009, a 34% increase over the previous year, when Boeing employees are struggling to win mere cost-of-living increases. He drew gasps from the audience when he tried to joke, “In this very instance, I have the sense that maybe it’s not enough.”

UPDATE: Here’s the video of that gem…

But most of Luttig’s testimony was dedicated to reciting the demagoguery repeated by Boeing company executives and southern Republicans allies.

Today at the Machinists District 751 blog, the union takes the opportunity to “issue a point-by-point rebuttal of deliberately misleading claims being made by Boeing and its political allies.”

“In the furor being stirred up by Boeing and its surrogates, the rule of law is being trampled in a bums’ rush to attack the NLRB, the Obama administration and collective bargaining,” said Chris Corson, the chief counsel for the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

Check out the IAM’s rebuttal.

Also see the column by Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, posted at The Stand on May 10 — Bottom line: Boeing recklessly broke the law