Court Strikes Down Replacement Worker Order
A federal appeals court yesterday struck down an executive order by President Clinton that barred the federal government from contracting with companies that hire permanent replacements for striking workers.</br></br>The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Clinton's executive order of last March was an improper attempt to set "broad" labor policy and violated the National Labor Relations Act by illegally interfering with private employers' rights to hire replacements.</br></br>In a 31-page opinion, Judge Laurence H. Silberman criticized the order as "quite far-reaching," pointing out that it applies to all contracts of more than $100,000. Silberman emphasized that that translated into $437 billion in government purchases in 1994 alone -- 6.5 percent of the gross domestic product -- and could affect 26 million workers, nearly one-quarter of the labor force.</br></br>"No state or federal official or governmental entity can alter the delicate balance of bargaining and economic power that the NLRA establishes, whatever his or its purpose may be," Silberman wrote on behalf of himself and Judges David B. Sentelle and A. Raymond Randolph, all Republican appointees.</br></br>Steve Bokat, vice president and general counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, described the ruling as "very, very significant" because it "is really one of the first opinions to clearly delineate the power of the president vis-a-vis Congress and his power to regulate through the executive order."