DEMINT DECODED: Follow the money in the Boeing-NLRB dispute

Toledo Autolite strike of 1934. A year later Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act. Today, Jim Demint and anti-NLRB conservatives want to return to the days when labor  conflicts were often fought out on the streets and union and non-union workers had no legal protections.

South Carolina Senator Jim Demint has requested documents from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to see if a pay for play scandal lurks beneath the Agency's recent finding in favor of the Machinist's Union. In their ruling, the Agency found that Boeing broke federal labor law by punishing its workers for engaging in legal strike activity over the years.

As we shall show in a forthcoming post, the NLRB was just doing its job and Jim Demint is swiftboating the NLRB to justify destroying the rights and protections the law currently gives both union and non-union American  workers through the NLRA

Here's what Senator Demint said in his request:

“The public facts surrounding the complaint raise serious questions about the interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act upon which it is based, to say nothing of the troubling appearance of partisan, special interest politics at its heart,” Source: 

CONGRESSIONAL  CLOUT COMPARISON: LABOR VS. MANAGEMENT
In Congress money = influence. And Boeing with 10 times the lobbying expenditures beats the Machinist's Union hands down.

Machinist's Union:    $1.79 million

Boeing:                      $17.9 million

Let's compare Congressional campaign contributions for 2010

Machinist's Union:  $2,206,500   Total 2010 revenue: $420 million*
Boeing:                  $2,648,661   Total 2010 revenue:   $64.3 billion

Now that seems pretty even but when you look at those figures as a percentage of annual revenue you can see its much easier for Boeing to make those contributions.

BOEING MONEY TO SOUTH CAROLINA POLITICIANS = $900 MILLION GIFT FROM S.C. TAXPAYERS TO SUBSIDIZE THE NEW SOUTH CAROLINA BOEING ASSEMBLY PLANT


Big surprise! The South Carolina Congressional delegation got its fair share of Boeing money. In fact Demint leads both the delegation and all Senate Republicans having received $10,701 from the aerospace giant during the 2010 election cycle.Source: http://www.opensecrets.org

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUBSIDIES: THE REAL SMOKING GUN DEMINT DOESN'T TALK ABOUT

Could Boeing's contributions be the real smoking gun behind this story or the more than $900 million in subsidies the company has received from South Carolina taxpayers?

Anti-union politics and low wages the dastardly duo of South Carolina's economic reality
List: Senator Jim Demint's campaign and PAC contributors
Where Senator Jim Demint stands on public employee unions and collective bargaining

*Estimate based on average hourly wage for an IAM member is $24.29. Union dues = 2 hrs. per month. Source: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/why/uniondifference/uniondiff17.cfm

NLRB challenges Boeing in planned South Carolina jobs move. The Board claims retaliation against Company's union employees

Boeing Assembly Plant in Everett Washington. Will the National Labor Relations Board and the Courts permit moving  1,000 union jobs to "right to work" South Carolina?  Photo: Getty Images-Stephen Brashear

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is calling Boeing's planned move of 1,000 union aircraft assembly jobs from Seattle to South Carolina illegal. The claim the company is retaliating against its Puget Sound, unionized employees for exercising their legal right to strike. The issue has become a Republican cause celebre and is expected to become a major issue in the upcoming 2012 Presidential elections.

The matter is going to court but in the meantime, South Carolina's Senators Jim Demint and Lindsey Graham, Governor Nikki Haley and others have not only weighed in on the case but have used it to propose defunding the NLRB which would effectively turn back the clock in US labor relations nearly 80 years. Demint contends that so called right to work states outperform union shop states economically.

In upcoming posts, we will look at the evidence. We will ask if "right to work" has helped or hurt South Carolina and we will look at some of the ulterior motives of Senator Demint and the anti-union right as well as the history of the National Labor Relations Act and what this has meant for American workers and their standard of living.

Pleas check back with us for more news on the Boeing-Machinist's Union dispute and in the meantime we offer you these related articles.

Boeing outguns Machinist's Union on lobbying provides big money to South Carolina politicians

Machinist's Union (IAM) statement with link to the actual NLRB complaint

GOP-Darrell Issa led House panel to hold Boeing hearings in South Carolina-MSNBC

Senator Demint wants access to NLRB documents in the Boeing-South Carolina case

Check the record: Jim Demint put anti-unionism ahead of air passenger security.

Who owns Jim Demint? Big corporate money and Koch Brothers are major contributors to campaign and Demint PAC