Jim McNerney, president and CEO of The Boeing Company, refutes the complaint against the company by the National Labor Relations Board in an op-ed to be published in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. The column, “Boeing Is Pro-Growth, Not Anti-Union,” also delineates the threat that the NLRB’s unprecedented complaint represents to U.S. competitiveness. Excerpt:

The NLRB is wrong and has far overreached its authority. Its action is a fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America’s competitiveness since it became the world’s largest economy nearly 140 years ago. We’ve made a rational, legal business decision about the allocation of our capital and the placement of new work within the U.S. We’re confident the federal courts will reject the claim, but only after a significant and unnecessary expense to taxpayers.

More worrisome, though, are the potential implications of such brazen regulatory activism on the U.S. manufacturing base and long-term job creation. The NLRB’s overreach could accelerate the overseas flight of good, middle-class American jobs.

See also Boeing’s “final answer” filed in response to the  (available here) to the NLRB’s complaint and the company’s letter last week rebutting assertions made by the NLRB’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon.

Jim McNerney, president, chairman and CEO of Boeing, gave an important big-picture speech on the U.S. economy and manufacturing Thursday at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, remarks entitled, “Renewing and Competitiveness and Innovation in a Changing Global Economy.”

Boeing’s top executive laid out three areas of concern to aerospace and other industries, which he identified as “thorny issues”:

First: economic trends that hinder innovation — including large U.S. deficits, regulatory burdens and tax policies;

Second: trade policy — the rise of aggressive (and sometimes government-subsidized) competitors abroad amidst a growing sentiment toward protectionism (a tough mix!) and;

Third: a shrinking U.S. industrial base fed by an even-faster shrinking pool of workers who are skilled in the problem-solving fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Indeed, that’s as good of a quick summary as you’ll find of the huge challenges facing the U.S. manufacturing economy exacerbated by misdirected, wrong-headed, bad government policies. (If you need a fourth bullet point, supply-restricting energy policies would fit.)

Below we note Colombia’s critique of U.S. trade policy, but of course U.S. trade policy should be driven first by U.S. self-interest. So let’s look at four news releases from Boeing, all from yesterday:

• Boeing-built Orbital Test Vehicle X-37B Begins 1st Flight
• 787 Dreamliner Undergoing Extreme-Weather Testing in Florida
• Boeing F-15K41 Successfully Completes 1st Flight
• Boeing Super Hornet Trainer Deliveries Allow US Navy to Train in 4-ship Formation

Why would the U.S. government surrender market share through inaction on trade when we have great, supercompetitive companies like Boeing? (continue reading…)