Romney Attacks Unions, NLRB, Obama in Charleston Visit

With the new North Charleston Boeing facility nearby, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney continued the GOP attack against union leaders in a Monday visit.

But Romney may have made the clearest effort yet to salvage the bridge with rank-and-file union members.

Like his fellow GOP presidential primary candidates, including the likes of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsmann, Romney used a union battle over the local Boeing facility as an attack on President Barack Obama.

The National Labor Relations Board has called on Boeing to take the Dreamliner facility it has built in union-adverse South Carolina and bring it back to the union-friendly Northwest, particularly after company executives gushed publicly about not having to wrangle with unions in South Carolina.

The arguably irrational request by the NLRB has led to a chorus of outrage from primary candidates already anxious for a fight with union leaders.

"For the NLRB to step in and stop the creation of jobs here in South Carolina and in America is really an unthinkable decision on their part and a terrible mistake," Romney said.

The former governor derided Obama appointments to the NLRB as "labor stooges" and said the president was in the pocket of union groups.

"This is without a question an egregious example of political payback, where the President is able to pay back unions for the hundreds of millions of dollars they put in his campaign at the expense of American workers and American jobs," Romney said.

Romney noted that the NLRB decision has led Boeing suppliers to hold off on locating facilities around the North Charleston plant — ancillary businesses that should be providing thousands of additional jobs.

"It has had a chilling effect," Romney said. "What has happened is that it has led to a great deal of the one thing businesses can’t deal with: uncertainty."

Beyond the right of Boeing and other companies to build facilities where they want to, Romney also called for universal secret ballot when establishing unions and he was also critical of unions using dues to support political candidates.

Romney went on to point to examples of employers who have successfully worked with unions, then suggesting that instances where the two sides can’t coexist are due to interference from "union bosses."

Romney tried to offer some assurance that he isn’t necessarily anti-union.

"We believe in the American worker. We believe in the union movement," he said. "Unions can be productive and helpful in keeping enterprises successful and thriving."

Donna Dewitt, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, was unconvinced.

"Throughout his campaign, Romney has shown that his priorities lie with corporations and the rich, not working people in South Carolina or across the country," she said in a statement.

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