Norton Says Retroactive House Repeal of a Basic Right of Workers Shows Shocking Abuse of Laws

September 15, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the House Majority's attempt to repeal retroactively a section of the National Labor Relations Act (NCLA) with today's passage of H.R. 2587, a move aimed at halting a matter pending before an Administrative Law Judge, revealed a "profoundly anti-labor bias in their party and a total disregard for due process of law." Norton, who taught labor law at Georgetown Law School as a full-time tenured professor, traveled to South Carolina in June for an unprecedented congressional hearing on a case that was assigned to an Administrative Law Judge there. The case stems from a complaint, filed by the NLRA General Counsel, which alleges that a Boeing official made explicit comments about moving part of the company's operations from Washington state to South Carolina because employees had engaged in strikes. The General Counsel alleges that Boeing retaliated against workers for exercising their right to strike, a violation of the Act.

"The General Counsel had virtually no choice but to file a complaint, given the explicit retaliatory remarks from a highly placed company official," Norton said. "No business reason was offered for the moves. The company may have a valid business defense to offer in ongoing legal proceedings, but the Republicans have continually tried to preempt the statutory fact-finding process while it has been in progress. First Republicans threatened to issue a subpoena until the General Counsel agreed to come to an Oversight and Government Reform hearing, then by that same committee's demand that the General Counsel produce work-product documents, and now by an attempt to repeal retroactively the statute on which the Boeing complaint is based--an unprecedented abuse of the rule of law. The right to strike without fear of retribution ranks with the cardinal rights most associated with free democratic societies. Republicans have long waged political campaigns against workers and their unions. However, by intruding into ongoing legal proceedings, and now seeking a retroactive repeal of a section of NLRA that is central to the right to strike, Republicans have shown that there are no limits to their determination to end many of the basic rights of workers and the unions they elect to represent them."

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