Their intended purpose was to amend the Hobbs Act and make violence committed in pursuit of labor union goals a federal crime.
The bills faced strong opposition from labor unions and others, especially for the clause that would disallow "obstruction of commerce," and failed to pass into law both times.
In the 1973 Supreme Court case United States v. Enmons, the ruling declared that the Hobbs Act as written did not cover such incidents, and cited Congressional debates at the time of passage that it was not intended to.
[4] The National Right to Work Committee, a strong proponent of the FUVA,[5] states:[6] The Freedom from Union Violence Act closes a loophole in the federal Hobbs Anti-Extortion Act, eliminating the special judicially-created exemption in this law for union-related violence and extortion and holding union officials to the same legal standards as other Americans.
Even the study conducted by the National Institute for Labor Relations Research - cited regularly as authority for this proposition by FUVA's proponents - draws no such conclusion.