NCJ Number
94534
Date Published
1983
Length
203 pages
Annotation
Witnesses testified in support of S.462, a bill to amend the Hobbs Act of 1946 so that no exhortive violence by either labor or management involved in a labor dispute will be exempt from its coverage.
Abstract
Committee members' opening statements emphasized the primary rationale for the amendment was to close the loophole opened by the Supreme Court's Enmons decision in 1973 which held that the Hobbs Act did not cover violence in interstate commerce when 'in pursuit of legitimate labor objectives.' The president of the National Right to Work Committee emphasized that the major issue in this debate was the use of force and violence against employees to compel them to join or support a union. He also believed that union-related violence was likely to increase in 1983. A part-owner of a small mining operation in Alabama described the campaign of terror from the United Mine Workers his mine experienced during the violent coal miners' strike of 1977 and 1978 and cited the lack of cooperation from local law enforcement. Another witness, a long-time union member an employee of an oil refinery in Texas, told how he was threatened and finally shot when he became disillusioned with the union's bargaining position after 8 months of being on strike and decided to return to work. The final witness, an attorney and law professor from the University of South Carolina, criticized State enforcement of criminal laws in the context of labor union violence and viewed the failure of the Hobbs Act to cover this type of violence as only part of a generally inadequate Federal response to the problem. Witnesses' prepared statements, statements from organizations opposing the amendment, committee correspondence, and pertinent articles are appended.