NLRB Sued For Suing Boeing

Washington-based Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, is reportedly taking aim at the National Labor Relations Board.

The group announced Tuesday that it was filing suit under the Freedom of Information Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia , for documents related to the NLRB's case against the airplane manufacturer Boeing. Judicial Watch believes that the agency took action against Boeing for political reasons. The Hill reports on Judicial Watch's investigation into the connection between NLRB and the White House:

"With its July 14, 2011, FOIA request and related lawsuit Judicial Watch seeks records of internal communications between officials, officers, and employees of the NLRB related to Boeing and the agency’s decision to file a lawsuit,' Judicial Watch said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. 'Judicial Watch also seeks records of communication between the NLRB and the Obama White House, the Internal Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and any other third party trade union, among others.'

The NLRB’s complaint against Boeing argues that the company decided to build a plant in South Carolina — a right-to-work state — to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state."

NLRB has already failed to comply with the subpoena issued by Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Darrell Issa for documents related to the case last week, leading the California congressman to call the board a "rouge agency."

The NLRB has made allegations that the aircraft maker illegally shifted work from union plants in Washington state to a new non-union factory in South Carolina. Conservatives argue that NLRB and the Obama administration are trying to tell Boeing how to run its business, and are an ally of organized labor to the point that "whatever labor wants, labor gets."