Since then, however, their protestations have been muted because the experience of almost forty years has exploded their predictions of gloom and doom. Belatedly, Fraser revives their abandoned charge. It has legitimized and strengthed democracy and legalized basic civil liberties in unions, protecting the rights of free speech, free press, the right to assemble, and fair elections for workers inside their unions. Before Landrum Griffin, members could be, and were, expelled for forming caucuses, for organized campaigning for union office, for suing in court or complaining to administrative agencies, for circulating petitions within their unions. All that is now illegal because of the Landrum Griffin Act.
Union democracy is now legal, and even reluctantly accepted by the labor establishment.
True, the coalition that put over the law was a mixed bag. Remember, however, that the basic provisions and principles of the law were first proposed by the American Civil Liberties Union . The law has not weakened the labor movement. It has strengthened the labor movement by strengthening union democracy. If true, this would be the worst news about labor we ve heard in a long time.