Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a sign that opposition to President Bush?s recent executive order prohibiting over 1000 workers in the Justice Department from organizing has spread beyond unions, eight members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the president yesterday opposing the decision. In their letter, Representatives Hoyer (D-Md.), Conyers (D-Mich.), Davis (D-Ill.), Moran (D-Va.), Morella (R-Md.), Smith (R-N.J.), Wynn (D-Md.) and Norton (D-D.C.) argue that the president?s use of national security concerns and the fight against terrorism as excuses for denying federal employees union protection ?cheapens the very things we are trying to protect? in the war on terrorism. The executive order affects employees---mainly secretarial---of the U.S. attorney?s offices, the Justice Department?s Criminal Division, the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol, the National Drug Intelligence Center and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review.