Bolling, Cuccinelli: If Kaine Still Supports Right-to-Work, He Should Publicly Oppose NLRB Boeing Suit

RICHMOND - If former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine still supports the Commonwealth's Right-to-Work laws, he needs to speak up.

That's the message that two of Virginia's highest-ranking elected officials sent today, calling on the former Democratic National Committee chairman turned U.S. Senate candidate to speak out against a threat to the Old Dominion's continued economic recovery.

"In my role as Virginia's Chief Jobs Creation Officer, I know how important our Right-to-Work law is in helping recruit new business, industry and jobs to Virginia.  Employers want to know that they have a stable environment in which to do business," said Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.

Bolling, who serves as the McDonnell administration's point man on job creation, called on Kaine to support Virginia's Right-to-Work laws. Virginia's law, as in 21 other states, ensures that workers have the freedom to join a union if they so choose, but cannot be forced to sign up as a condition of employment.

"Virginia is widely recognized as the most pro-business state in the nation, and one of the reasons for this recognition is the fact that we are the northern most Right-to-Work law state," he said.  

"Unfortunately, in recent years our right to work law has been under attack," Bolling added. "The most recent attack comes from the National Labor Relations Board and their incessant efforts to force unionization on employers through a number of misguided federal policies."

"Every candidate for statewide office should publicly reject the NLRB's anti-business policies and ensure employers and workers alike that they will do everything they can to support our state's Right-to-Work law," said Bolling.

"This NLRB assault is a jobs creation program... for China. Does Tim Kaine really support this sort of extra-legal, Virginia-job-destroying policy? I think Virginians deserve the right to know before Kaine is given power to affect the NLRB in the U.S. Senate," said Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

"Men and women have the right to join a union, but no one should be coerced or compelled to join a union as a condition for having a job," Cuccinelli said. "Washington hasn't yet gotten the message that it needs to get out of our day to day lives. That's why Virginia needs a Congressional delegation that is committed to preserving the freedom embodied in Virginia's Right-to-Work law."

The NLRB sued Boeing last month in an effort to block the company's plans to expand its 787 Dreamliner manufacturing lines by adding some 1,000 new jobs at a new facility in South Carolina, a Right-to-Work state. The Board's suit claims that the decision to expand in South Carolina, instead of Washington, a forced-union state, is retaliation against union workers there for previous strikes.

Boeing argues that all the jobs being created are new and the expansion of the Dreamliner manufacturing line in South Carolina is good business. Boeing has said the new jobs will have no impact on the existing line in Washington state.

As DNC Chairman, Kaine was quick to mobilize the party's resources to oppose the efforts of Republican Governor Scott Walker, of Wisconsin, to overhaul his state's public employee collective bargaining rules. According to reports by The Washington Post, Kaine spoke with Wisconsin labor leaders during the legislative debate on Governor Walker's budget repair bill.  

Not long after, Organizing for America, the remnants of the Obama 2008 campaign began making phone calls, sending Twitter messages and e-mails in an effort to rally opposition to the bill.

Both Cuccinelli and Bolling called on Kaine to make his support for Virginia's Right-to-Work laws clear, and publicly call on the Obama administration as well as the NLRB to end their suit against Boeing.