Obama on bringing back manufacturing.. We as unions can shake down all industries

byJoel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer

President Obama rallied with union workers at a Boeing plant in Washington, but he praised the manufacturing conducted by Boeing in South Carolina, even though his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) tried to close the South Carolina plant at the behest of the Washington union workers.

"So this company is a great example of what American manufacturing can do in a way that nobody else in the world can do it," Obama told the assembled workers this afternoon at the Everett, Wash., Boeing plant. "And the impact of your success, as I said, goes beyond the walls of this plant. Every Dreamliner that rolls off the assembly line here in Everett supports thousands of jobs in different industries all across the country. Parts of the fuselage are manufactured in South Carolina and Kansas," Obama also noted before mentioning factories in other states.

The NLRB tried to close that South Carolina plant, though, after union workers in Washington argued that Boeing had built the new factory in South Carolina -- which is a right to work state -- in retaliation against the Machinist Union strikes that had slowed production in Washington state. The NLRB dropped the complaint in December after Boeing signed a new contract with the machinists

The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein argued that the NLRB "helped unions shake down Boeing" by pushing the complaint, which would have cost over 1,000 non-union jobs in South Carolina, until the union received the new contract.

"What's happening here in Everett can happen in other industries," Obama added today during his discussion of American manufacturing.