Allen plan would curb union power nationally

Republican George Allen is looking to make labor a wedge issue in Virginia’s 2012 U.S. Senate race by insisting that right-to-work laws be expanded to all 50 states.

Allen revealed his three-part plan that partially strips power from the National Labor Relations Board, which angered conservatives when it intervened in Boeing’s decision to move a production line from union-friendly Washington state to South Carolina, which, like Virginia, is a right-to-work state where union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment. The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure similar to Allen’s earlier this year.