Legislating Union Democracy

...Broad public concern with labor affairs has been galvanized by the explosive revelations made by the McClellan Select Senate Committee on Improper Practices in the Labor or Management Field and by the earlier, less publicized Douglas Subcommittee on Welfare and Pension Plans...

...They should be so to do their job in big, power-oriented America— with its big business, big government, bigness in every way everywhere...

...The total gets to be alarming if the proverbial butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers are added...

...or if an appeal by a member to a higher union authority against the local action would "work an undue hardship" or would be "illusory or vain...

...Meany, who has impressed himself upon the public mind as a straight-shooter, said the oilier day at the convention of the Industrial Union Department: "Until the Senate hearings, we did not know one one-hundredth of the corruption existing in the union movement...

...Part 6 of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Code, which covers Union Democratic Processes (approved May 23, 1957), observes: "The record of union democracy, like the record of our nation's democracy, is not perfect...

...No one can question the candor of this statement...

...There ought to be a law'—and a court to judge intra-union conflicts Legislating Union Democracy By J. B. S. Hardman THE PROBLEM of internal union democracy does not now seem to figure as importantly as it should in the thinking of American labor's high command...

...The reasoning that went into the setting up of the family courts is applicable to the problems of union democracy...

...Instead, as reported by Earl Mazo in the N.Y...

...It is the more so when Senators Barry Goldwater, Karl Mundt and other union foes appear to be saying something outwardly similar...

...The democratic code carries no such sanctions against violators as does the code on corrupt practices...

...And, where things are in bad shape, a non-enforceable code is inconsequential...

...It may mean near-perfect or nowhere near it...

...But leader-effectiveness depends upon alert, loyal and dynamic members...

...The woods are not full of UAW-type unions and Reuther administrations...

...Ultimately, it is illusory to depend on public-spirited citizens to engage en masse in laundering union conflicts...

...No strike without a majority union vote by secret ballot...

...A few unions do not practice or implement the principles set forth in their constitutions...

...The leader lives on a dead-end street...

...There is in practice a good deal of democracy as regards the first category...

...The strengthening of internal democracy is one—of not very many—means of undoing corruption...

...One would wish to know more about the numbers of members in those "few unions" which do not provide, in their constitutions, for basic democratic principles, and in the other "few unions [which] do not practice or implement the principles set forth in their constitutions...

...The members' apathy to which the Code refers breeds mittee itself is not omniscient, and information on democratic practices is not subject to subpoena and not susceptible to accountants' reckoning, either...

...they are more likely to impede it...

...He does not propose to become a political has-been, nor is he classifiable as an out-and-out anti-union politician...

...They lack the basic provisions which make processing of justice real and true...

...National union leadership should seriously consider the establishment, by enactment of a national law, of an institutional arrangement to provide legal redress of grievances and to help cultivate the observance of proper, democratic member-officer relations within the unions...

...The answer will, in good part, be given by labor itself...

...Protection of individual union members from "discrimination or reprisal...

...Unionism has now become institutionalized and is involved in a variety of directions with numerous segments of the public...

...Yet, the innovations did not include airtight institutional setups to deal with the growing internal complexities and resultant conflicts...

...Labor unions are now powerful and big...

...and (2) the right of members to participate in "running the organization"—i.e., the right to criticize the administration, policies and personnel, the right to freedom of expression and dissent in matters that legitimately come up for action by the union...

...The clear fact is, however, that time and circumstances command that "there ought to be a law" to which an aggrieved union member can have recourse when his proper, legitimate rights under the union laws are violated...

...Understandably, national labor leadership gives highest priority to the evil of "racketeering or corrupt influences...

...There are considerable variations on this score, but where the adjective "good" can be used it is due most often to high-quality, democratic-minded officers, members energetically insistent on protecting their rights, and perhaps also a bit of good luck...

...That may cramp the style of some of the particularly power-conscious local or general officers...

...What is allowed as the basis of these printers' union "parties," though, is not a political or social ideology but a stand on trade or industrial policies, or individual merits of candidates for office...

...When the old philosophy ceased to fit, union structure evolved step-by-step to match the demands of new circumstances...

...But the almost certain consequence, a release of many members' numbed energies and revival of frustrated loyalties, would eventually prove rewarding to both members and leaders...

...When hundreds of unions turn to that expedient, the business will be professionalized and things will fall in pretty much the old fold...

...It works no better in unions than anywhere else...

...Does all this spell disaster to the union movement...

...Members, in large numbers, share in the determination of these problems through the widespread and fairly broad systems of shop or plant meetings and other representative setups...

...Knowland picked the issue as ccntral after an active month-long exploration of grassroots party and public sentiment in California...

...Full employment helps, too...

...Unionism, as it came into being over a century-and-a-half ago, was not of so complex a design...

...There may also be clique-ruled locals in the clean-at-the-top Machinists' Union—and in all the 200-odd national unions in and out of the merged federation...

...Unions need effective, power-endowed leadership...

...Only the printers' union permits the continuous functioning of an opposition party to contend for office on equal terms with the administration...

...Conflicts between the uses of power and the exercises of rights are unavoidable, but those accused of abuse of power cannot in fairness dispense justice...

...Internal democracy in that second sense is not on the upgrade...

...The ideal state of affairs was not, however, thus boss-rule, but so does the latter, where it exists, cause apathy...

...Finally, while the overwhelming majority of American unions both preach and practice the principles of democracy, in all too many instances the membership by apathy and indifference have forfeited their rights of union citizenship...

...But no suasion need be exercised where democracy works well...

...The principle of solid internal unity of "officers and men" lasted and served the unions well as a cohesive and directive force throughout their formative stages...

...Its underlying thought in the early days was that of a "mass democracy," traceable to the equivalent central idea of the French Revolution and its philosopher-guide Rousseau...

...It may well be that Meany's immediately negative reaction was tactically sound...

...Of course, leadership opinion and outlook carry great weight, but responsible leaders also keep their eyes and ears close to the grassroots...

...But autocratic or machine management of a union induces corruption, lays the foundation for it, gives it security and momentum...

...Labor-regulatory legislation is clearly on the way, and some is certain to be enacted whether labor wants it or not...

...A few unions do not adequately, in their constitutions, provide for these basic elements of democratic practices...

...But the preservation of internal union democracy is a matter of importance within the union movement and of great moment nationally...

...Membership "power to correct arbitrary and unlawful accounts of union officials [if possible by] the same kind of safeguards provided stockholders...

...There is hardly a word that the good unionist detests more than "injunction," a court order directing a union not to strike or assist its members in a strike...

...Even worse perhaps, the grievance will get the attention not of the experienced, responsible head of the local union, but of a second-string staff specialist or a busy committee lacking in competence or objectivity...

...Five of the seven points deal with matters of internal democracy...

...Unionism as a whole may well find it of advantage to itself, in the long run, to have the members' rights and leaders' responsibility bolstered by adequate legislation, carefully devised and properly administered under foolproof institutional setups...

...of the courts...

...Herald Tribune: "He handles the touchiest item—the right-to-work or anti-union-shop issue—with an earnest declaration that the right to work, the right to employment, is a basic civil right...

...There is a time to fear, and there is a lime to face up to what was once feared...

...Democracy is a complicated operation...

...Being nearly always re-elected may (and often does) reflect not the members' undying preference but the unedifying art of "an engineering of consent," with the democratic process mechanized...

...But he makes no crusade for it...

...The grievance he may have—apart from what may belong to labor-management relations and issues—is not likely to receive, in a local union of many thousands of members, the kind of personal and close consideration that was possible in the old-time small organizations...

...That no longer fits the new stale and status of the 20-million-member union movement in the democratic United States...

...Labor leadership has become professionalized, yet it is an elective office...

...It depends...

...Members would be encouraged to take a real hand in union matters beyond listening to officers' monologues and casting votes on union-management contracts and in officers' elections...

...In consequence, the relationship between the "organization" and the individual member, and sometimes with groupings of members, is more involved than what was implied in the old slogan: All for one, one for all...

...Far less satisfactory is the state of internal union democracy when the members' civil rights are at issue...

...In 1953, they further amended these provisions...

...Its democratic process was, historically, of the town-meeting type...

...The American people have accepted bona fide unionism as an integral part of the democratic way of life, but at times they are a bit critical of some details of labor performance...

...The average union member is hardly in a position to cope with the difficulties involved in "going to court...

...It seems the better part of union wisdom to remember the sad experience of the Taft-Hartley Act...

...The Board is empowered to insure that officers at all levels continue to observe the highest ethical standards and democratic practices within the UAW...

...Democracy further implies separation of authority and delineation of competence among the executive, legislative and judicial functions and their respective institutions...

...Moreover, the issue of internal democracy in unions is not labor's exclusive property...

...J. B. S. Hardman edited Labor and Nation and the CIO Advance, directed Columbia University's Labor Leadership Study, and is author of House of Labor and other books...

...There still lingers in the recesses of union-consciousness that ancient fear of Government, of law...

...Anyone who deviated from the general will within, as set by the local union meetings, had to accept the decision or take the consequences: Out...

...It is, indeed, a matter of legitimate concern to thinking Americans whether the "private governments" of 20 million of their fellow-citizens are run democratically or oligarchically, are operated honestly or as a prey to thieves and hold-up men, are guided by a sense of national concern or torn asunder by pursuers of factional special interests...

...Union governments, like most other governments, prefer to carry on as best they know how without being disturbed by dissenters, even well-wishing ones...

...The Senate Comachieved...

...For the task of fighting for economic survival and the political reforms that facilitated that fight were one and indivisible...

...Implicit in it is exercise of power with the consent of the governed—and...

...Neither is an all-time verity...

...There is no adequate defense of such rights in the basic structure of most unions...

...Having wrested leadership of the UAW from the Communists in 1946, they wrote into the union's constitution the best provisions they could devise to serve that end...

...There were too many on the outside to cope with: employers, Government, courts, police, anti-union workers...

...That is most fully brought forth in the seven-point program recently advanced by Senate minority leader William F. Knowland...

...The UAW leaders, headed by Walter P. Reuther, have been much concerned about assuring full protection of members' interests against possible power usurpation by union officers on all levels...

...Mindful of the conservative base of his strength, he finds occasion to note that he favors "right-to-work" legislation "in principle...

...But Meany also indicated the limits of that retreat: "Let me make it crystal clear: The AFL-CIO will fight to the last ditch against any attempt by the enemies of labor in Congress to capitalize on the investigation of corrupt practices for the purpose of fastening further restrictive legislation upon the whole trade-union movement...

...in turn, active participation by the governed in the making of important decisions, through freely and regularly chosen representatives...

...There are many obstacles in the way of an individual union member seeking redress of his grievance via the regular courts, including the consideration of cost...

...The validity of union-industry agreement depends upon the workers' satisfaction with the clauses in the document...

...But a bold proposal to bolster internal union democracy by a wise, constructive law, coming from him, would most certainly split the honest, reform-minded proponents of regulatory legislation away from the union-busters...

...Recall of unsatisfactory union officers by secret ballot...

...At the same time, the older homogeneity of the union membership no longer prevails...

...The defiance by the Hoffa-led Teamsters' ruling junta of the AFL-CIO Executive Council's clean-house order maximized the call for restrictive union-regulating laws...

...The bills before Congress and plans otherwise urged vary considerably...

...The courts will not generally intervene until the member has fully exhausted all the avenues and methods for redress of his grievance which his union provides, unless the union by-laws and constitution are "tyrannical, oppressive or confiscatory...

...But the good unionist is pleased when the National Labor Relations Board, an industrial court, commands an employer to "cease and desist" from a certain "unfair labor practice"—an injunction directed at the other side...

...Their "watchdog committee" may prove effective, but the woods are not full, either, of the exceptional breed of "watchdog committee" the UAW secured...

...AFL-CIO President George Meany voiced a significant change of attitude when he pledged: "We will support the enactment of whatever legislation is necessary to protect the funds of our membership and to correct abuses that adversely affect the public interest...

...It is doubtful that a "fight to the last ditch" can spell victory in the current supercharged public mood on an issue which cannot easily be seen as aiming to endanger the very life of organized labor...

...Such a Court of Intra-Union Relations would have to be so set up that, under proper provisions and checks, its members would be completely removed from the interplay of partisan and special-interest forces in the national political system—perhaps by being appointed by high national authority for life...

...But its case is exceptional...

...It could hardly be otherwise...

...A Court of Intra-Union Relations would, in effect, be a Public Defender office for the protection of union members and officers against unfair practices within the union's body politic, from whatever quarter it comes...

...The union, comprising a variety of workers in a variety of special types of employment within its operational base, the jurisdiction, now often represents not an all-inclusive general will but the common denominator of many differing wills, harmonized on a give-and-take basis...

...Surely there are many good, democratically-run locals in the Teamsters' Union...

...There ought to be a law and under it a properly set up Court of Intra-Union Relations competent to hear arguments and render final decisions in such conflicts as develop within a union between members and officers and are not soluble by prescribed methods...

...The lament, "There ought to be a law," is as American as the chestnut, "That government is best which governs least...

...The gist of it all is that few unions, if any, are equipped to act as judicial bodies against their own administrations or local units...

...Eventually, failing to receive justice, the members may take recourse to regular courts of law...

...But, excepting the die-hard ideas which would legislate most of unionism out of existence, the general tenor of the current drive for regulation is to protect union members' rights as against the power of leaders and officers...

...The eventual legislative product will certainly be worse if labor takes no part in shaping it...

...Regulatory laws, like people, can be good or bad...

...In 1947, union-minded Harry S. Truman sat in the White House...

...The non-yielding, non-bargaining position of the union chiefs of that time, in both the AFL and the CIO, virtually paralyzed the efforts of the many pro-labor members of Congress to modify some features of the bill—and thus unwittingly played into the hands of those favoring restrictive legislation...

...It presupposed, like that philosophy, a "general will" and a total identity of interest on the part of all members of the union...

...That a mending of ways is wanted finds further confirmation in the UAW's setting up of a "watchdog committee," officially the Public Review Board...

...Protection of union welfare funds "in the same way that bank depositors are protected.' • Handling of union dues and initiation fees under conditions of "strict accountability and integrity...

...A mere pledge of "self-discipline" would carry little conviction...

...Not perfect" is not a precise description...

...A vital point is the recognition and legitimate functioning of an opposition and the right of institutional reform and change of Government personnel and laws...

...But the mass democracy has become differentiated...

...Though the record of the UAW has been of the highest as regards clean and democratic union performance, the UAW leaders found it advisable to recommend (and the 3,000 delegates to the 16th UAW Constitutional Convention in April 1957 overwhelmingly approved) creation of the Public Review Board, composed of seven prominent citizens not connected with the union, to act as a court of final resort for members with grievances against their local or the International...

...As union organizations grow ever bigger and their business more complicated, the influence of the individual member upon the operation of the union tends to diminish...

...Generally, functioning oppositions are not tolerated...

...The Senator solemnly repeats at every opportunity that his seven-point program for 'union democracy' would benefit every rank-and-file member of all unions and become 'labor's bill of rights' by clipping away executive powers from union leaders, particularly the unscrupulous ones...

...The Teamsters have 1.4 million...

...Such intent is clearly present in many instances, and labor spokesmen won't be slow to detect and accordingly tag a particular proponent or proposal...

...Not all cases are court-actionable, and progress, even when the courts do act, is neither easy nor quick...

...These words still epitomize the cardinal raison d'etre of unionism...

...The thought is patterned on the idea of the courts of domestic relations...

...A distinction should be made at this point between two aspects of members' rights: (1) the right to participate in the making of union decisions which bear on the terms of employment and whatever else comes within the concept of the worker's economic interest...

...Growing centralization and tightening officer control are...

...What, then, can be done...

...Labor leaders, in the higher echelons, love to refer to their unions as the labor or union family...

...Labor people have long memories of wrongs done them by legislative, judicial and administrative agencies of the Government...

...It is difficult to put this idea into words when one has freely "chosen labor" for keeps and knows how rightly labor fears legislative Greeks bearing gifts...

...He favors legal machinery to eliminate abuses by local officers and by trustees appointed by national officers to manage local union affairs...

...The key question today, however, is what kind of legislation could genuinely aid honest unionism...

...Members' opinions are actively sought for decisions on working conditions and other worker "equities" in and around the job...

...But the legislative trend, on the whole, is not primarily inimical to unionism...

...Congress overrode his veto...

...Such a court would not handle labor-management disputes...

...A feature of these democratic union laws in the UAW, as in all other unions, was that the processing of member-officer conflicts was done within the union itself...

...There remains the cumbersome recourse to the national union authorities—where the same set of circumstances may make satisfaction unattainable...

...In only rare instances is opposition to the administration in power at all tolerated...

...His program calls for: • Election of union officers by secret ballot...

...Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, a liberal Republican, is reported to favor regulation of internal union democracy...

...So it would be logical enough to apply the same remedy to disputes in the "union family" when an impasse has been reached...

...The remedy devised by the UAW may work—in its case...

...But its statistical basis is uncertain...

...And Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, labor-supported and friendly to labor, takes a similar view...

...He is well informed and too intelligent to think that a head-on fight against labor could ever uproot unionism...

...The public is now much more suspicious of union leadership than it was a decade ago...

...The reference to the "overwhelming majority of American unions [which] both preach and practice the principles of democracy" is speculative, based on reports of officers, some not a little biased...

...It can be enforced by moral suasion only, by the prestige of the AFL-CIO leadership, at present very high...

...Realization of the idea could come only after clear, careful and patient study by an appropriate public body, together with representative, responsible union leadership...

...Whatever the intent back of the Senator's words, there is little doubt that public opinion inclines toward some measure of intervention by law into the conduct of internal union affairs...

...More than expediency makes it urgent for labor leadership to take a hard look at the internal union democratic process and, likewise, at what is going on in Congress...

...Staying in office becomes his paramount task, which he fulfils quite often by building a clique or compromising his beliefs or the members' interest...

...The union did not recognize internal conflicts of interest, and there were none...

...Discipline and cohesion are essential to the maintenance of unions as effective organizations, even as they are essential in family life...

...The orientation ceased to be satisfactory as labor emerged from its socio-political doghouse and moved up as a contender for its share of power and responsibility in the national equilibrium...

...Some of these "few unions" have quite impressive numbers of members...

...Hence, there ought to be a law—a law and a court to compose intra-union, member-officer disputes over power, rights and duties...

...Even if there were no external pressure, there is room for improvement of internal democracy...