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