Boeing Co. is trying to expand production and add manufacturing capacity, something most other companies can only dream about doing in this economy. Unfortunately, Boeing has hit a snag in its attempts to expand production of its Dreamliner airplane to a new facility in South Carolina. But it is not the economy that is hampering the opening of the new assembly line. It’s the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Under President Barack Obama, the NLRB has become markedly more pro-union and has been busily working to reverse long-standing rulings to favor unions. This is happening even as the number of private-sector employees who are union members has continued to decline. Last year, 6.9 percent of private sector wage and salary workers were members of a union, down from 7.2 percent in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Labor.