On the recordSeptember 15, 2011
I want to thank the chairman for his leadership on this issue and so many others on the Education and Workforce Committee. Mr. Speaker, the NLRA is supposed to balance the rights of employees, employers, and the general public, but you would never know that from the recent actions of the NLRB. This unelected group of executive branch recess appointees has abandoned all pretense of objectivity and has become, frankly, nothing more than a taxpayer-funded law firm for Big Labor. Boeing is the most glaring example of their overreach, but it is not the only one. At a time when union membership is at a historic low, the NLRB seeks to give Big Labor a historically high level of influence with this administration, whether it's quickie elections or mandating advocacy posters in the workplace or this, the economic death penalty. The NLRB is out of control and it needs to be reined in so it does not do even more damage to this fragile economy. With respect to the bill at hand in which my friend and colleague Mr. Scott seeks to remove a single remedy from the arsenal of the NLRB, leaving a dozen other remedies, this bill simply says that you cannot force Boeing to close a billion-dollar facility, which is already being constructed in Charleston, and fire the thousand workers who have been hired and send the work back to Washington State, which is tantamount to the economic death penalty. Not a single worker has lost a job or a benefit in Washington State, Mr.…





