Eric Boehm at Reason reports when U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (Republican-Missouri) recently clashed with a Boeing attorney at a committee hearing, he was clearly picking sides in an ongoing fight between the company and thousands of striking Workers at a Missouri Factory. But Hawley wasn't just borrowing the Labor Union's rhetoric as he criticized Boeing's CEO's pay and demanded "fairness" for the Workers. As a result of that hearing, Hawley has directly (if perhaps incidentally) empowered Labor Unions in New York and California, which will find friendlier turf for labor disputes while the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues to lack a quorum. Here's why: New York and California have created State-level entities that are meant to serve the same purpose as the NLRB, which was created in 1935 to adjudicate disputes between Unions and employers. The creation of these entities has been backed by Labor Unions as a way to "circumvent" the Trump Administration's expected appointment of less Labor-friendly Members to the NLRB, as Politico explained. It's not clear whether those States can legally do that and the NLRB has already sued New York on the grounds a State-level Labor Board undermines the "core jurisdiction" of the Federal Board. For now, the laws authorizing the New York and California Boards allow those entities to operate only while the NLRB is inactive - which it currently is, because it does not have enough Members. That's where Hawley enters the picture.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Story, Go To: How Josh Hawley Is Empowering Unions in New York and California