Marshall Babson quoted in The New York Times
"Labor Board Case Against Boeing Points to Fights to Come"

Seyfarth Shaw New York partner and former National Labor Relations Board member Marshall Babson was quoted in The New York Times on April 22 in an article focusing on how the outcome of the NLRB's case against Boeing may affect businesses and their union workers. The agency filed the case when Boeing moved production to a nonunion plant in South Carolina to avoid strikes faced at a unionized plant in Washington State, and the case is seen by some as government interference. The article also discusses the acting general counsel of the NLRB (nominated by President Obama to be the permanent general counsel), Lafe Solomon, as leading the charge and seeking to reinterpret and enforce the rules governing employers and employees. Writer Steve Greenhouse predicts that the spotlight will soon "move to the five-member board, whose decisions often have broad effect, much like court precedents."

He points out that the NLRB is currently Democratic-dominated, and decisions often tilt toward unions and reversing Republican-leaning board decisions.

Marshall commented that the board had "teed up a lot of important issues for consideration," adding "its behavior had been more moderate than the Reagan board, which reversed about two dozen pro-union decisions in one year."

While Boeing maintains that the case is "legally frivolous," Solomon feels he is enforcing the law, and only works to enforce the National Labor Relations Act.