Supreme Court Sets Back Union Democracy

In 1959, Congress passed the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, after extensive hearings into the corruption, dictatorship, and racketeering that existed in some major unions. The congressional goal, according to Senator McClellan, chairman of the Select Senate Committee, was to end “autocratic rule by placing the ultimate power in the hands of the members, where it rightfully belongs so that they may be ruled by their free cons...