Alexander hails NLRB step and pushes bill

Friday, January 1, 1904

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., welcomed the labor ruling Friday dropping the complaint against Boeing's move to South Carolina.

But he said the legislation is needed to ensure the National Labor Relations Board doesn't assert similar authority in the future.

"Dropping the complaint solves the Boeing problem," Alexander said. "But that the complaint was filed at all creates an environment that makes it riskier and more expensive to create private-sector jobs, the last thing a country with 34 months of above 8 percent unemployment needs."

Alexander, along with South Carolina U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, are pushing legislation that would protect state right-to-work laws, clarify that the NLRB would not be able to order an employer to relocate jobs from one location to another and guarantee an employer the right to decide where to do business within the United States.

Alexander warned in a May speech denouncing the earlier NLRB ruling that the policy might encourage companies like General Motors to build plants overseas, rather than move to right-to-work states such as Tennessee.