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Norton to Fight Anti-Home-Rule, Anti-Union Bill

June 6, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) sharply condemned a bill (H.R. 4792) recently introduced by Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) that is not only an attack on the labor rights of federal employees, but also redefines the District of Columbia government as a federal agency for purposes of undermining public employee unions in an independent jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. Specifically, the bill would prohibit the federal and District governments from deducting union dues from employee paychecks.

"Congressman Meadows may need a civics lesson to be made aware that D.C. government employees are no more a part of the federal government than North Carolina's state government employees," said Norton. "I will work hard to see that this bill does not become law and to turn back its brazen goal of undermining worker rights by weakening labor organizations. To make matters worse, the targeting of our local jurisdiction's laws adds an anti-democracy element that is particularly offensive. Congressman Meadows is only serving his first term in Congress and has only managed to think of 13 bills to introduce, but with this bill, he has already violated his professed support for small government and local control of local affairs."

Norton has succeeded in getting D.C. government employees treated the same as state and local government employees. Last Congress, Norton's D.C. Hatch Act Reform Act, which gave D.C. government employees the same rights under the federal Hatch Act as all state and local employees and no longer treated them as if they were federal government employees, was enacted into law.

Published: June 6, 2014