ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- Economic developers in Alabama shouldn't look at a fight between Boeing Co. and its labor union over a new airplane assembly operation in South Carolina as an isolated case with no spillover, officials said Monday.
A panel said the attempt by the National Labor Relations Board to prevent Boeing from building its new 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina could have ramifications for Alabama because it calls into question whether a company with operations in an open union state can set up operations in a right-to-work state.
"Alabama is not that different from South Carolina," Marcel Debruge, partner with the Burr & Forman law firm, told members of the Economic Development Association of Alabama at the organization's summer conference Monday at the Perdido Beach Resort.
The NLRB and labor unions allege in a complaint in Washington state that Boeing's decision to move Dreamliner production to a $750 million plant in North Charleston, S.C., was a blatant attempt to avoid the unions at its plant in Seattle and retaliation for years of labor strikes at those plants. The workforce at the South Carolina plant, which was unionized under a previous manufacturer, voted to decertify the union under Boeing's ownership, sparking the lawsuit.
Debruge said what makes the legal challenge so unusual is the remedy the NLRB and labor unions are seeking: the forced move of airplane production back to Washington state.
If the NLRB and the union are successful in getting that decision, it could have a chilling effect on companies with operations in open union states moving to set up operations in right-to-work states, Debruge said.
Prospective companies have often chosen to locate in right-to-work states such as Alabama because even if a union vote is allowed at a plant, each individual worker has the right to decide whether he or she wants to be part of the union.
In open union states, a majority vote to unionize forces all workers to become part of the union.
Debruge also raised concerns about proposed changes in NLRB election procedures. Most worrisome is a call to defer litigation of most voter eligibility issues until after union elections. That would shorten the time before a vote is conducted, putting employers at a disadvantage by not having enough time to educate their employees on the positives and negatives of voting in favor of the union.
Another new provision would require employees to provide the names, phone numbers and email addresses of employees to the labor union looking to unionize the plant. The sharing of such information is frowned upon in the South, where personal privacy is considered important, Debruge said.
Unions are falling out of favor nationally, according to Frank McRight of Frank McRight PC, another panelist at the conference.
McRight said nationally, union membership has declined from a height of 35.5 percent of private sector employment in 1945 to 6.8 percent this year.
Changes in legislation, increased employee mobility, union integrity issues and globalization are among the reasons for the decline, he said.
McRight said another big reason is employers are giving employees less reason to want to join a union. He likened it to a marriage where a third party is unnecessary as long as both sides are happy and willing to work out differences together. "Employers are more educated about unions, and that includes the disadvantageous of being in a union," he said.
The down economy and other factors, however, are making it a little easier for unions to bring the matter to a vote, McRight said.
Source: http://blog.al.com
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