IAM Causes More Drama for Boeing in North Charleston, South Carolina

About 5 years ago, Boeing, tired of having to deal with the Machinists union either threatening to, or repeatedly going on strike in Washington State, relocated its headquarters to Chicago and started producing part of its airplanes in anti-union South Carolina. As expected, IAM objected to Boeing’s decision and sought to enjoin it from relocating part of its operations to the other side of the country. During this time, the union repeatedly bad-mouthed the South Carolinian workers.

Fast forward to today, and the Machinists union is intensifying its campaign to organize the 3,000 permanent employees at Boeing’s airplane manufacturing campus in North Charleston, South Carolina. In a recent interview, a Boeing spokeswoman quipped how she would like to “remind people that this union – the IAM – is the same union that wanted to shut down 787 final assembly and delivery in South Carolina by filing an NLRB lawsuit against Boeing in March 2010.”

Let me get this straight – the union that was decertified in 2009, that spoke ill of the workforce, that sought to put the employees out of a job by prohibiting them from working on Boeing’s planes, is now trying to convince the same workers they should pay the union monthly dues and that the union suddenly now has the employees’ best interest in mind. If they believe that, they’ll also buy swampland in Florida.