North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue won’t answer whether she supports the National Labor Relations Board or The Boeing Company in the ongoing labor battle in neighboring South Carolina.
“As for the NRLB and Boeing, I can only say this: Governor Perdue is, and will continue to be, 100% focused on creating jobs here in North Carolina,” North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Walton Robinson said in an email to The Daily Caller.
Because President Barack Obama is in the state on Wednesday selling his “jobs plan” to residents, the North Carolina GOP is asking, yet again, where specifically Perdue stands on the issue. The question has come up repeatedly, North Carolina Republican Party spokesman Rob Lockwood told TheDC, but Perdue has never given a specific answer: Boeing or the NLRB?
Lockwood says that punting on the NLRB v. Boeing question isn’t attractive to prospective businesses, and isn’t likely to create any jobs as it adds to the uncertainty already in the economic environment.
“President Obama’s NLRB is the one to blame, but Governor Perdue’s deafening silence screams to employers ‘I won’t fight for you if you wanted to come here,’” Lockwood said in an email. “It is almost as if she has a deal with the White House to not comment on this issue.”
The NLRB is suing Boeing as a result of claims from the International Association of Machinists that the airline giant violated labor law by opening a new plant in South Carolina. Boeing contends that building there instead of Washington State was not retaliation against the IAM. Boeing has added new jobs in Washington state and no workers there have lost work. (RELATED: Obama works to keep North Carolina blue)
Lockwood compares Perdue with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who’s been overtly vocal and outspoken against the NLRB for its pursuit of Boeing. She even went as far as calling the NLRB “Un-American” about two weeks ago.
But, since Perdue hasn’t commented, Lockwood points out that companies may choose South Carolina over North Carolina when relocating or opening new facilities or businesses. “Governor Perdue’s deafening silence on the NLRB v. Boeing case has severely hurt employment North Carolina,” Lockwood said. “We share the same geography and right-to-work laws as South Carolina, but our Governor refuses to fight for jobs like Nikki Haley.”
Obama will be presenting his “jobs plan” in several different places throughout North Carolina on Wednesday, including at WestStar Precision’s headquarters in Apex. WestStar is a high-end, specialty manufacturer that just opened a new facility in San Jose, Costa Rica — creating many new jobs there, but not in the United States. The company’s owner, Obama donor Ervin Portman, is quoted in local news reports from 2004 as saying the reason he moved jobs to Costa Rica is to “take advantage of low labor costs.”