25 January, 2011The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and the AFL-CIO sue republican governor of South Carolina over her pledge to use state resources to deprive South Carolina citizens of the right to join a union.
USA: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is facing a big lawsuit after saying that the state will attempt to keep unions out of the Boeing plant in North Charleston. The lawsuit, filed on January 20, 2011 in U.S. District Court in Charleston by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), asks for a court order telling Haley and her director of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR) Catherine Templeton to remain neutral and keep out of matters concerning union activities.
The suit charges Republican Governor Nikki Haley with violations of the federal constitutional and statutory rights to free speech, free association and due process by establishing a state governmental policy of hostility to unions and workers seeking to join unions. The IAM and the AFL-CIO filed the suit under a section of the U.S. constitution, which prohibits state officials from acting in a way that deprives citizens of federally-protected rights. (Full text on the lawsuit is available here: http://bit.ly/SCGov_Complaint)
On December 8, 2010, Governor Haley announced she would nominate union avoidance attorney Catherine Templeton to head South Carolina's Department of Labour, Licensing and Regulation (LLR), declaring unequivocally, "We're going to fight the unions and I needed a partner to help me do it." The IAM suit also names Catherine Templeton, head of South Carolina's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR) as a co-defendant.
"By tasking Ms Templeton to lead the fight against union organizing in South Carolina, and specifically against the IAM at the Boeing facility in North Charleston, Gov. Haley is requesting a state official to violate the very law she is charged with enforcing," said IAM southern territory vice president Bob Martinez. "The state has no business whatsoever taking sides or exerting influence in a worker's decision to join or not to join a union," he added.