United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management

[15] The new select committee was given a year to complete its work,[16] and charged with studying the extent of criminal or other improper practices in the field of labor-management relations or in groups of employees or employers.

[1] Robert Kennedy proved to be an inexpert interrogator, fumbling questions and engaging in shouting matches with witnesses rather than laying out legal cases against them.

[1][33] Chief Counsel Kennedy resolved to investigate a wide range of labor unions and corporations, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Auto Workers (UAW), Anheuser-Busch, Sears, and Occidental Life Insurance.

[35] In Oregon, The Oregonian newspaper ran a series of investigative pieces that earned reporters a Pulitzer Prize, and prosecutors indicted about 30 people.

[36] Working with the FBI, the Select Committee electrified the nation when on February 22, 1957, wiretaps were played in public before a national television audience in which Dio and Hoffa discussed the creation of even more paper locals,[37] including the establishment of a paper local to organize New York City's 30,000 taxi cab drivers and use the charter as a means of extorting money from a wide variety of employers.

[39] With the support of 70 hours of taped conversations, Elkins described being approached by two Seattle gangsters about working with the Teamsters to take over Portland vice operations.

[45] Beck was called before the McClellan Committee again in May 1957, and additional interest-free loans and other potentially illegal and unethical financial transactions exposed.

[1][4] Noted attorney Edward Bennett Williams accused the Select Committee of bringing witnesses into executive session, ascertaining that they would exercise their Fifth Amendment rights, and then force them to return in public and refuse to answer questions—merely to generate media attention.

[50] While continuing to investigate and hold hearings on other unions and corporations, the McClellan Committee also began to examine the behavior of Jimmy Hoffa and other Teamsters officials.

Senator McClellan accused Hoffa of attempting to gain control of the nation's economy and set himself up as a sort of private government.

[51] The Select Committee also accused Hoffa of instigating the creation of the paper locals, and of arranging for a $400,000 loan to the graft-ridden International Longshoremen's Association in a bid to take over that union and gain Teamsters control of the waterfront as well as warehouses.

[52] Johnny Dio, who by late summer 1957 was in prison serving time on bribery and conspiracy charges, was paroled by a federal court in order to testify at the Select Committee's hearings.

[54] But despite the problems encountered in interrogating Dio, the Select Committee developed additional testimony and evidence alleging widespread corruption in Hoffa-controlled Teamster units was presented in public in August 1957.

[56] As the Hoffa hearings occurred in August 1957, the Select Committee met in executive session to restructure its organizations and set its agenda for the future.

In January 1958, Chairman McClellan asked for and received permission from the Senate to extend the deadline for completing the committee's work for another year.

Republicans on the Select Committee, notably Barry Goldwater, had for several months in late 1957 accused Robert Kennedy of covering up extensive corruption in the UAW.

[25] Refocusing its attention back on the Teamsters, the Select Committee held a short set of hearings in August 1958 intended to expose corruption by the Hoffa regime.

[70] Senator Jacob K. Javits (R) of New York also introduced bills in 1965 and 1967 increasing regulation on welfare and pension funds to limit the control of plan trustees and administrators.

[1][2] Another 58 staffers were delegated to the committee by the Government Accounting Office and worked in Detroit, Chicago, New York City, and southern Florida.

[76] At the turn of the century, historians and biographers continued to criticize the Select Committee's lack of respect for the constitutional rights of witnesses brought before it.

[1][24][26][28] Several historic legal developments came out of the select committee's investigation, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision and landmark labor legislation.

[78][79] Among the more prominent bills was one submitted in 1958 by Senators John F. Kennedy and Irving Ives (with assistance from nationally known labor law professor Archibald Cox) which covered 30 areas, including union recordkeeping, finances, and democratic organizational structures and rules.

[25] By 1959 the Eisenhower administration had crafted its own bill, which was co-sponsored in the House of Representatives by Phillip M. Landrum (Democrat from Georgia) and Robert P. Griffin (Republican from Michigan).

[84] However, McClellan was able to convince the full Senate to impose jurisdiction on Government Operations, and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations began making inquiries into matters pertaining to syndicated or organized crime.

[85] The national attention paid to Robert F. Kennedy during the Select Committee's hearings helped launch his career as a government official and politician.

[26][87] His experiences with the Select Committee significantly affected Robert Kennedy, and strongly influenced his decision to make fighting organized crime a high priority during his tenure as United States Attorney General.

[24][88][89][90][91] After leaving the Select Committee, Robert F. Kennedy spent the better part of a year writing about his experiences and what he had learned about unions and organized crime.

[19][94] Although Hoffa was indicted several times in federal and state courts based on evidence uncovered by the Select Committee, he was never convicted on any of the charges.

[95] Prosecutors and others accused Hoffa of jury tampering and suborning witnesses in order to beat conviction, but these charges also were never proven in a court of law.

[102][103] Barred by a commutation of sentence agreement with President Richard Nixon, from participating directly or indirectly in union activities until March 6, 1980, Hoffa was released from prison on December 23, 1971, but disappeared on July 30, 1975 (and was presumably murdered).