Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena to the National Labor Relations Board on Sunday requesting documents that he said the board had failed to provide of its own accord.
The documents involve the NLRB’s controversial suit against Boeing, which seeks to block the airline giant from opening a production facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, instead of Washington State. The NLRB claims the move constitutes retaliation against the International Association of Machinists union. Boeing insists that it is purely a business decision.
The subpoena orders the NLRB to provide all documents and internal communications relating to Boeing or the IAM from January 1, 2009 to present by noon on Friday. Issa claims that the committee requested those materials in May, but had not received them from NLRB.
“NLRB’s action in the case against Boeing has the potential to create a job-killing precedent just as U.S. manufacturers are working toward economic recovery,” Issa said in a statement on Monday. “That a Washington, D.C.-based bureaucracy could dictate the work location and parameters for a world-leading company is unprecedented in a global economy and hobbles a leading American job creator at a time of economic vulnerability.”
The Labor Department did not return a request for comment by press time.
