Cato Institute
Policy Analysis
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Page 25
pursuit of "legitimate" union goals was exempt.  FUVA
retains an exemption for some conduct, but makes clear
which conduct is exempt and which is not.
For instance, FUVA exempts "minor bodily injury or
minor damage to property" from prosecution for extortion.
It is not difficult to distinguish between an occasional
bloodied nose or a single broken window and the misconduct
described in this paper.  International Paper suffered
$750,000 in damage to its Androscoggin, Maine, plant due
to sabotage by local paperworker unionists.  Boise Cascade
in International Falls, Minnesota, lost $1.3 million in a
riot by ironworker union militants.  Ravenswood Aluminum,
which suffered more than 2,500 acts of violence, would not
reveal their financial damages.
Since 1975, at least 181 Americans have died as a
result of union violence, according to the NILRR's data
file--hardly the "minor bodily injury" exempted under FUVA.
There have also been more than 5,600 assaults, kidnap-
pings, and threats--almost all committed by striking union
militants.
FUVA also exempts union violence "not part of a pat-
tern of violent conduct or of coordinated violent activi-
ty."  The violence cited here can hardly be dismissed as
spontaneous or uncoordinated.  Newsstands were targeted in
the Daily News strike only after attacks on delivery
trucks failed to stop circulation.  In the Detroit News
strike, Newspaper Guild officials announced their intention
to follow company trucks to stop distribution of the
paper.  In the Boise Cascade riot, the union militants who
attacked the nonunion camp were bused to the site.  Time
and time again, one sees nonstriking workers stalked, kid-
napped, threatened at their homes and on the telephone,
and sometimes firebombed or shot at.  Such actions cannot
be characterized as lacking in forethought.
Even with its exceptions--more important for what they
do not exempt than for what they do--FUVA would finally
enable federal prosecutors to try union militants and
officials for extortionate behavior.  Opponents of FUVA
have objected to that authorization.
Testifying against FUVA last year, labor law professor
Michael Gottesman argued that the "intentional commission
of a crime against person or property is a crime in every
state. . . . Not a single wrong would be made a federal
crime by S. 230 that is not now a state or local crime
everywhere today."86   The Georgetown professor's objection
might carry more weight if any evidence could be produced