Williams Protests "Name-Calling"
Thursday, June 26, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
"It's with some bemusement that we've witnessed recent attacks on local
labor leaders whose only crime seems to be that they've been a bit too
effective," said Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams in letters to
the Washington Post and DC Councilmembers Mary Cheh, David Catania and Tommy
Wells last week. Responding to a June
16 editorial in the Washington Post, Williams noted that in one case, "a few
members of the DC City Council who wound up on the losing end of a vote on the
Noise Bill decided to blame the labor movement for their own failures supporting
a fatally flawed and misguided piece of legislation," while in the other, "our
colleagues in Montgomery County have come in for heavy criticism for daring to
insist that the county honor legally negotiated contracts with their own
workers." The letter to the Post has not yet been published. In his letter to
Council member Mary Cheh (Ward 3), Williams suggested that "Even allowing for
the rhetorical flourishes that are a natural part of democratic debate, your
characterization of our opposition to the Noise Bill as 'using the Constitution
as an assault weapon' seems to not only cross the line of civilized debate but
to well-nigh obliterate it." He also objected to David Catania's (At Large) "ad
hominem character assassination of your remarks from the dais calling the labor
activists who opposed you on the Noise Bill 'thugs,'" noting that "Even allowing
for the 'heat of the moment' during a lively debate, this kind of name-calling
should be far beneath a City Council member." Emphasizing the value of
differences of opinion, Williams warned Tommy Wells (Ward 6) that "if we lose
the ability to engage in constructive and civil debate we risk damaging the very
institutions and principles that underpin a system that speaks to our highest
ideals."