Defending Union Democracy

In 1958, Herman Benson, a longtime socialist and labor editor of a weekly New York tabloid, Labor Action, received a call about three leaders in a Chicago Machinist union local. They had challenged the questionable financial practices of the union business agent, but the union's international president was more upset about their distribution of handbills to members than any malfeasance by the business agent. He put the local under a trustee who promulgated rules banning distribution of any literature (even the Bill of Rights). As the local leaders carried on their protest, two of them were expelled by the president, A. L. Hayes, after he suppressed the results of an internal trial and issued his own verdict. It's an appalling story, but the kicker is that Hayes was also chairman of the new AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee.