Norton Says Vitter and Broun Violate Their Own Stated Principles When Dragging D.C. into Their Anti-Union Bill

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today called on Senate and House Republicans to end their attacks on the District of Columbia's labor laws, after Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Representative Paul Broun (R-GA) introduced the second bill this Congress uniquely attacking the labor laws of the District of Columbia.

"D.C. does not intend to become a party to the Republican war on labor," Norton said. "These bills would not only undermine the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, but they are especially offensive because they single out the District for unique treatment. Senator Vitter and Representatives Broun and Meadows are violating their professed support for a small federal footprint and for local control of local affairs. Perhaps they need to take a look at the Home Rule Act of 1973, where Congress granted the District the right to govern its own local affairs subject to a small number of enumerated exceptions. D.C.'s labor laws are not among those exceptions."

The Vitter-Broun bill, the so-called Freedom From Union Violence Act (S. 2535/H.R. 2021), would make it a special federal crime to engage in violence during a labor dispute in connection with interstate commerce and commerce solely within the District, but not solely within states. The bill is designed to undermine collective bargaining and to portray unions as violent. In May, Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) introduced a bill (H.R. 4792) that would prohibit federal agencies from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. The bill redefined the District government as a federal agency for such purposes, thereby prohibiting the District government from deducting dues.