LABOR: Landrum-Griffin's First

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The stern "Bill of Rights" section of the new Landrum-Griffin labor-reform law went into effect the moment the President signed the bill on Sept. 14, but the section designed to ensure honest union elections does not go into effect until Dec. 13. This 90-day delay was intended to give unions time to make their constitutions and practices more democratic. But it served quite a different purpose for Anthony Provenzano, heavy-handed agent of Top Teamster James Riddle Hoffa and indicted (bribe taking) boss of northern New Jersey's big (12,000 members) Teamster Local 560. In the local's October meeting Provenzano and his toughs squelched a band of insurgent members, railroaded through a scheme to hold elections in Jersey City a week earlier than scheduled—on Dec. 11 and 12, just before the new law's fair-election rules go into effect.

Provenzano's plans would have succeeded but for Manhattan Lawyer Godfrey Schmidt. 56, who resigned from the court-appointed national board of Teamster monitors last July in order to carry on his anti-Hoffa fight in the locals. Schmidt went before Federal Judge Thomas H. Meaney in Newark, charged that in the October meeting Local 560 insurgents had been denied protections guaranteed by Landrum-Griffin. Meaney slapped Provenzano with an injunction that adjourned all union business meetings until the insurgents could exercise those rights. Result: Provenzano's forces caved in, last week signed a court stipulation postponing the election until mid-January, giving insurgents a fair chance to run a slate against the strong-arm regime. Without much of a court fight, Landrum-Griffin paid its first dividend.