Labor Reform Act of 1959

In the old Supreme Court Chamber of the U.S. Capitol's Senate wing late one afternoon last week, reporters flushed a pair of tired Senators. Democrat John Kennedy of Massachusetts and conservative Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona showed the strain of 2 1/2 grueling weeks of battle, generally with each other, inside the 14-man Senate-House conference committee assigned to work out differences between Senate and House versions of the Labor Reform Act of 1959. A reporter asked Kennedy how labor unions would feel about the final bill just agreed on, and Goldwater playfully answered for him by shoving an imaginary labor knife into Kennedy's back. Kennedy laughed, turned serious. "Compromises are never happy experiences," he said. "I think it's the best bill we can get--and get a bill."

Most other Congressmen, viewing the long-debated bill from all political positions, felt about the same. The Senate promptly passed the bill on what members counted the same as a unanimous vote: only oddball Democrat Wayne Morse of Oregon and oddball Republican William Langer of North Dakota opposed. The House voted next day, 352-52, sent the bill on to the White House. When President Eisenhower signs, as he doubtless will and with some satisfaction, the reform act will become the U.S.'s first substantial labor legislation since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (which was passed over President Truman's veto).

The new law cost more sweat and legislative pain than any other act since Taft-Hartley. Jack Kennedy's political prestige was committed to the relatively mild Kennedy bill (even though it had been beefed up in a floor fight led by Arkansas' John McClellan), and the Kennedy bill passed the Senate 90-1. President Eisenhower's power and prestige were committed to the sterner bill sponsored by Georgia Democrat Phil Landrum and Michigan Republican Robert Griffin which he had bulled through the House (229-201) with his effective television appeal (TIME, Aug. 17). Few old hands on Capitol Hill believed that Conference Chairman Kennedy could close the wide gaps between the two without losing control of his committee, letting the bill go back to both houses for another hot, hopeless battle.

In the end, Kennedy avoided disaster by giving way to most of LandrumGriffin's amendments to the Taft-Hartley Act. In effect Kennedy: P: Accepted the House's strong ban on secondary boycotts (barely mentioned in the Senate bill), including the Eisenhower-requested ban against picketing of innocent retailers who sell goods from struck plants.

P:Agreed to give state labor boards jurisdiction over small-business-labor disputes now rejected by the National Labor Relations Board, thus strengthening the Senate's halfway attempt to solve the "no man's land" problem. P: Accepted the House's stronger ban on blackmail picketing, but beat down a severe House section that would effectively prevent almost all picketing in advance of a plant's NLRB election.

Lost in the headline controversy were the new labor law's substantial contributions to the U.S. criminal code. Sentence by sentence, the Bill of Rights and supporting sections of the Labor Reform Act create a new arsenal of weapons against the union bullyboys and embezzlers. Some key sections:

Members' Rights. Labor-boss coercion is outlawed, members get the unqualified right to vote in union elections (by secret ballot), may speak up against policies, get fair and public hearing in disciplinary procedures, sue in U.S. courts if justice is not provided under union procedure.

Goldfish Bowl. Every labor organization must file comprehensive reports with the U.S. Secretary of Labor on the working of its constitution and bylaws as well as on all financial transactions, including large payments and loans to officers and staffers. Similar reports are required from management on all payments to union officers and to labor-relation consultants. Maximum penalty: $10,000 fine and a year in prison.

Trusteeships. Each "trusteeship" takeover of a recalcitrant local by top union bosses, long a favorite exploitation device, must be reported in detail to the Secretary of Labor. Maximum penalty: $10,000, or one year, or both.

Elections. Secret elections, protected by poll watchers and ballot-count watchers, are required every three years for local union officers, every five years for national officers, by secret ballot among membership or at a convention composed of delegates chosen by secret ballot.

Safeguards. Since they are positions of trust, union offices may not be occupied by Communists; ex-convicts (including those convicted of violating members' rights); leaders who take a loan bigger than $2,000 from union treasuries, embezzle union funds, or have conflicting business interests. Top penalty: $10,000, or one year in prison, or both.

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