WASHINGTON (PAI) - Thomas Delay (R-Texas) drew strong responses from organized labor, after the House majority leader alleged that "union bosses" were sanctioning worker actions that allegedly brought harm to the U.S. and the nation's security after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Union bosses have only just begun exploiting the war effort and America's security needs," DeLay said, in a political fundraising letter on behalf of the national Right-to-Work Foundation.

Delay claimed that the International Longshore and Warehouse union "exploited urgent economic and national security needs last fall by forcing a crippling shutdown of West Coast ports." Delay's claim came even though port managers locked out the longshoremen on Oct. 1-11, and let workers re-enter only when President Bush invoked the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act and got a court order to do so.

DeLay, Congress' ruling Republican, also alleged that union leaders used the 9-11 attacks unpatriotically, to push pro-union bills. Unions, for example, pushed strongly to grant union protection to Homeland Security Department workers.

The prime bill that DeLay cited would legalize efforts by police, fire fighters and EMTs to seek collective bargaining rights in states that do not allow it - right-to-work states such as Delay's Texas. A Senate GOP filibuster killed the bill.

Fire Fighters President Harold C. Schaitberger blasted DeLay for questioning the patriotism of unionists. Schaitberger not only demanded an apology from DeLay but also wrote House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R- Ill.), nominally DeLay's boss, asking if DeLay's position "represents the consensus of your (GOP) caucus?"

Schaitenberger continued in his letter to Delay, "I can forgive someone - even the House Majority Leader - for being confused about a legislative issue. I can even look past a creative interpretation of the facts. What I cannot and will not forgive is the outrageous way your letter attacks America's fire fighters and other trade union members.

"How dare you question the patriotism of the nation's fire fighters and their elected union leaders?...Have you forgotten so soon? On Sept. 11, 2001, my proud union lost 343 fire fighters at Ground Zero" when the Trade Center's twin towers collapsed after the terrorist-commandeered jets hit them.

"Are you aware that many of these American heroes were actually off-duty, working off the clock? Those fallen fire fighters didn't stop to read a union contract or worry about overtime entitlements. They responded. They served. And they died saving tens of thousands of other Americans."

DeLay did not respond to Schaitberger. He blamed the Right-to-Work foundation's staff and said he never actually read the letter. Reports also said DeLay wants to meet Teamsters President James Hoffa - not Schaitberger - to discuss it.

"Your attack on me and my colleagues in the labor community only serves to harm the Teamsters' goal, which I thought you shared, of putting issues ahead of partisan politics," Hoffa warned, while demanding an apology. "By going beyond the specifics...and attacking us personally, your letter creates a significant impediment for our developing relationship."