Read HR 3305

With recent confirmation from Boeing CEO Jim Albaugh that South Carolina’s anti-union status was a key factor in the airline manufacturer’s decision to locate a new production plant in the Palmetto State rather than Washington State, local opponents of union-busting are wondering why the General Assembly seems so intent on targeting organized labor even more.

Only 4.5 percent of the workforce in South Carolina is unionized, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The national average is 12.3 percent.

Last week, lawmakers put what the Senate Republican Caucus dubbed an “anti card-check bill” on special order and debated it for hours. With a two-thirds majority vote, the resolution would put a question on the next general election ballot asking whether union elections should be held in secret. The measure did not pass, attracting 30 of the 31 votes needed to put it on the ballot.

State Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican who supported the bill, says he isn’t worried about South Carolina becoming a strong union state. The impetus for the legislation, he says, is a federal bill called the Employee Free Choice Act that’s been winding its way through Congress for a year. That bill is perhaps the most union-friendly legislation with a chance to pass since the Wagner Act of 1935.

Martin says his fear is that along with that legislation could come employees losing their right to cast ballots on whether they want to unionize in secret.

But Donna Dewitt of the state AFL/CIO says the federal bill does not take away secret ballots. The employee, she says, will always have the right to a secret ballot. All the state lawmakers are trying to do, she says, is further disenfranchise unions.

Indeed, the whole state bill is pointless, Dewitt says.

“It’s a moot issue,” she says. “It’s a push-button issue to drive people to the polls.”

Some critics believe that lawmakers might be setting union organizing in their sights because of Boeing’s decision to relocate its 787 Dreamliner assembly line from Everett, Wash., to North Charleston. The company had problems with worker strikes in Washington, CEO Jim Albaugh told the Seattle Times last week.

Albaugh said that moving Boeing’s production line to South Carolina would be risky because they’d have to build a new plant and hire inexperienced workers. But not having to worry about people going on strike outweighed all that, he said.

The motivation for debating bills that target union members during a period of widespread economic hardships is something Democratic Sen. Brad Hutto of Orangeburg says he doesn’t understand.

“We’ve got serious, serious needs in our public schools … kids with autism that have needs … people with health care needs,” Hutto says. “We have all these needs and what we think is going to be important is to pass a bill [about union elections]?”

Hutto says bills like these could just be a way for pro-business organizations to justify charging member fees. 

“It’s sort of almost humorous to think that if you’re already the most business-friendly state, how can you get even more?” Hutto says.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter takes it a step further, calling the legislation just more red meat for those who are anti-union.

“I don’t necessarily take any pride in the fact that we let Boeing in because we trampled on the rights of workers to organize,” says the Orangeburg Democrat. “I’m glad Boeing is here, but I quite frankly would like South Carolina workers to have the opportunity to negotiate contracts that will pay them a livable wage and with health benefits similar to what the Boeing workers [in Washington] got.”