Williams Protests "Name-Calling"

(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."