Document Type
Review
Publication Date
1980
Abstract
In the innocent closing years of the 1950s, the American public fastened on union democracy as the most burning issue of the day. No other subject produced as much mail for Congress. The 229-201 count by which the Landrum-Griffin bill was substituted for the House Labor Committee's bill on labor-management reporting and disclosure constituted the largest total vote in the history of the House of Representatives. Significantly, however, that vote had little if any bearing on union members' rights. What distinguished Landrum-Griffin from the Committee's bill was its stiff new curbs on picketing and boycotts. As Senator John Kennedy's advisor, Archibald Cox, caustically observed, business groups backing the legislation had no genuine interest in labor reform. They simply wished to exploit the public outrage over the McClellan Committee's exposures to strengthen management's bargaining position in relation to labor.
Recommended Citation
St. Antoine, Theodore J. Review of The Landrum-Griffin Act: Twenty Years of Federal Protection of Union Members' Rights, by J. R. Bellace and A. D. Berkowitz. Indus. & Lab. Rel. Rev. 33 (1980): 571-2.