Mitt Romney took a dig at President Obama for visiting an Alcoa plant in Iowa, saying the White House’s labor appointees will soon force them to lay off workers.
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Alcoa’s plant makes parts for the Dreamliner, a Boeing plane that is currently the subject of a legal battle between the company and the National Labor Review Board, an independent agency whose members are appointed by the White House. The NLRB recently sided with unions in Washington State who claim that a new manufacturing line for the plane in South Carolina is illegal retaliation against them for previous strikes.
“This Boeing decision in South Carolina sent shockwaves across the nation and, if allowed to stand, will result in American job losses and I think you can be sure there will be some losses in Iowa as well as other states,” Romney said in an AP interview on Monday.
Only one problem: Alcoa told the AP their plant’s workforce is just fine:
Alcoa spokesman Mike Belwood said the labor board’s battle with Boeing over the South Carolina plant will not have an impact on employment at Alcoa’s eastern Iowa plants, which produce aluminum lithium plate used to make structural components of the Dreamliner.
To be fair, Romney and other GOP candidates have said the Boeing case could generally affect jobs in states like South Carolina with “right to work” laws that restrict union activity, of which Iowa is one. That notion is heavily disputed by the NLRB itself and other observers who see the current legal fight as an isolated incident. But in the context of the interview, Romney is clearly singling out Alcoa for its direct connection to Boeing.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.