UAW lawyers’ local fights congressional subpoena
House committee seeks details on Gaza cease-fire vote
Members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325, at the Legal Aid Society picketed outside of their downtown Manhattan offices in April 2023. This week, the ALAA refused to comply with a congressional subpoena related to members’ vote on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in December.
DUNCAN FREEMAN /THE CHIEF
Posted Thursday, March 28, 2024 1:08 pm
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN
A United Auto Workers local representing public defenders in New York declined to comply with a congressional subpoena this week, arguing in a letter to the House of Representative committee that its demands exceed its jurisdiction and threaten workers’ free speech rights.
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, subpoenaed the Association of Legal Aid Attorney’s Local 2325 on March 11 for information regarding a vote that ALAA members took in December on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Foxx initially requested a bevy of information on matters related to the resolution in a January letter to ALAA’s president, Lisa Ohta. When the union failed to respond to the request, Foxx subpoenaed the union.
In conjunction with lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union, the union on Monday responded to Foxx, writing in a letter that it objects to the subpoena and that Foxx’s requests for information were “vague and overbroad.”
“The ALAA and Ms. Ohta object to the subpoena on the ground it exceeds the lawful and legitimate jurisdiction of the Committee,” the response reads. “The Committee’s true interest in this matter arises out of the Committee’s hostility to the content of the ALAA resolution, which not only renders the subpoena beyond the Committee’s legitimate authority but also violates the United States Constitution.”
In a statement, Leah Duncan, the ALAA’s financial secretary-treasurer, wrote that the union stands behind its resolution and the process that led to its passage.
“We are proud to be part of the growing movement of unions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” Duncan said in a statement. “We continue to condemn all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia and reject the harmful rhetoric that conflates anti-zionism with antisemitism. Our membership will not be intimidated into abandoning our core principles, including advancing the interests of working people worldwide, by this blatant attack on organized labor.”
The ALAA represents more than 2,700 workers at The Legal Aid Society, Neighborhood Defender Service and other legal service providers.
Instead of providing the detailed information, including the minutes of internal union meetings, Foxx requested, the ALAA will furnish the congressional committee only publicly available documents, the union said in a press release.
A spokesperson for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce did not respond to a request for comment on the union’s defiance.
‘Clear government overreach’
The resolution, “Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, and Support for Workers’ Political Speech,” passed in a 1,067-570 vote by the members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325 of the UAW. It calls for an end to “Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land, sea, and air by Israeli military forces,” and refers several times to Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip as genocide.
The resolution was discussed by ALAA members in the months before its passage, but an earlier vote was blocked when four union members at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County sued the local. A federal judge threw out that suit on Dec 15 and the vote proceeded soon after, with members voting 1,067-570 to adopt the resolution.
The UAW International has also called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and officials in the union have labeled the congressional investigation into the ALAA “McCarthyism” and a “witch hunt.” Lawyers advocating for the ALAA said the subpoena would chill the constitutionally protected free speech of union members.
“This inquiry is a McCarthyite silencing tactic meant to chastise lawyers and legal services workers for their protected political speech and intimidate other unions from speaking out,” a senior staff attorney with the NYCLU, Lupe Aguirre, said in a statement. “The Committee’s attempt to stifle workers’ speech because it doesn’t agree with their viewpoints is a clear government overreach. Union members have the constitutional right to take political stances and express themselves through voting.”
