LANDRUM-GRIFFIN ACT 73 Stat. 519 (1959)

Known as the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, Landrum-Griffin brought internal administration of labor unions within the realm of federal regulation and guaranteed union members certain basic rights. Its goal was union self-regulation and voluntary democratization.

Passage of the measure resulted from a growing national concern influenced by a Senate committee's findings of union leaders' corruption and autocratic behavior. Relying on Congress's constitutional authority to insure the free flow of interstate commerce, the act restricted secondary boycotts; strictly controlled union elections; required strict reporting of the unions' financial transactions; outlawed extortion picketing; authorized state jurisdiction over labor disputes not handled by the National Labor Relations Board; and modified union security provisions for certain national unions. In setting forth a Bill of Rights of Members of Labor Organizations, the act reversed the courts' tendency to allow union governance by self-established rules.

The act also made it a criminal offense for a Communist party member to serve as an officer or employee of a labor union until five years after termination of party membership. In united states v. brown (1965) the Supreme Court ruled this section unconstitutional as a bill of attainder.

Paul L. Murphy
(1986)

Bibliography

Mc Laughlin, Doris and Schoomaker, Anita 1979 The Landrum-Griffin Act and Union Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.