Earlier today the European aerospace firm announced it would invest $600 million in a new airline factory in Mobile, Alabama, its first such one in the US. Why Mobile? Well, Gov. Robert Bentley was blunt in an interview with Fox Business’s Neil Cavuto this evening.
“We are a right-to-work state,” he said. That is, Alabama is one of 23 states that forbid workers from being forced to join a union as a condition of employment. This has resulted in weak unions in those states.
‘The cost of doing business in Alabama is low,” the Republican governor said, adding later: “I think being a right-to work state is the reason many international companies look at Alabama and the other right-to-work states.”
This was “particularly important” to Asian countries, he said.
Allan McArtor, Airbus’s American chairman, was more circumspect with Cavuto, pointing to other advantages Alabama had, such as deepwater ports. But he conceded that Alabama’s union environment – or lack thereof – gave it a leg up.
“I don’t think there is any question that right-to-work states have an advantage on recruiting out-of-country or out-of-state employers. It is not a definitive reason why we chose Alabama but I don’t think there is any secret to the fact that it is an advantage,” he told Cavuto.
These were surprisingly bold announcements given the fact that aerospace giant Boeing was hit with a complaint last year by the National Labor Relations Board for locating a new plant in right-to-work South Carolina. The NLRB alleged this constituted retaliation against the company’s union – even though no jobs were shifted or lost – because an executive said one reason for locating there was to avoid costly strikes. The complaint was withdrawn after Boeing reached a compromise with the union.
Many thought the case would cause businesses to avoid mentioning a state’s right-to-work status altogether even if it did figure into their plans. McArtor seemed to shrug those concerns off.
