Boeing CEO tapped to lead Business Roundtable

McNerney’s company has been embroiled in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint alleging that the company decided to build a plant that would produce 787 airplanes in South Carolina in retaliation for labor strikes by workers at its Puget Sound plant near Seattle. The Business Roundtable has called on the NLRB to drop the complaint.

“It has no legal basis and represents a drastic departure from NLRB and Supreme Court precedent,” Business Roundtable President John Engler sand in a statement in April. “We strongly encourage the NLRB to follow current federal law and go to Congress if they wish to change that law. Finally, the NLRB should recognize that all of the President’s appointees have a responsibility to help strengthen the U.S. economy, and that must override the temptation to do political favors.”

Conservatives have used McNerney’s service on President Obama’s Export Council, which he is also chairman of, to suggest that Boeing’s labor practices cannot be illegal.