"I'm From the Federal Government. We're Ordering You To Move"

Imagine a land where the rulers could arbitrarily order you to pick up your family, all your possessions and move to a distant location.

It happened in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. It happened in Red China in the 1960s.

Lafe Solomon

And in 2011 it happened in the United States as the Obama administration once again invented a brand new power not found in law or authorized by the Constitution under which we've all agreed to live. Mr. Obama's team of petit despots has ordered The Boeing Company to abandon its newest factory in South Carolina, built at a cost of $1 billion, turn its back on the thousand workers already hired and the two thousand new recruits identified to fill future jobs, and instead build or expand its assembly lines and workforce in only and specifically in Washington.

The civil complaint by the National Labor Relations Board accuses Boeing of "interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees" by opening an expansion plant to manufacture increased numbers of new aircraft in right-to-work South Carolina rather than in the heavily unionized Puget Sound region. The NLRB has requested an order requiring Boeing to build and operate its expansion line for the manufacture of 787 aircraft in Washington State using unionized labor from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

THE NLRB official behind this tyrannical move is its acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, appointed by Mr. Obama last year on a temporary basis in order to avoid for as long as possible the need for Senate approval.

Interestingly, no Boeing employees lost their jobs because of the decision; Boeing's unionized employment in the Puget Sound is 2,000 jobs greater today than it was prior to the expansion.

Earlier, the same Lafe Solomon threatened to sue four states for passing laws guaranteeing workers a right to a secret ballot for union elections. According to Mr. Solomon, since a right to a secret ballot does not exist in federal law it should not, cannot exist at the state level.

Given his radical agenda, there is no possibility that Mr. Solomon's nomination will ever be confirmed by the Senate. His continued presence in the office of General Counsel might very well threaten the NLRB's future funding. It will be interesting to see how long Mr. Obama hugs organized labor's coin purse before he throws Mr. Solomon under the bus.

Granted that this is the way it's done in Chicago, but it ought not to be the way the system operates nationally.

UPDATE:  Here is the complete text of Boeing EVP Michael Luttig's letter to the NLRB calling that agency's acting general counsel out for a number of "misrepresentations." It makes for incredible reading.

UPDATE: A special welcome to Doug Ross' readers. Please feel free to nose around!