U.S. Department of Labor to Induct Key Figures of The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act into the Hall of Honor

WASHINGTON, DC – In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the landmark Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), the U.S. Department of Labor today announced that former U.S. Senator Robert Griffin and former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Howard Jenkins, Jr. will be the newest inductees to the Department's Hall of Honor in this fall.

"Robert Griffin and Howard Jenkins, Jr.'s work on the LMRDA protects members of America's unions and holds union leaders accountable," Acting Secretary Pizzella said. "As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the LMRDA, it's important to recognize two of the biggest contributors to this landmark piece of legislation."

Details regarding this fall's Hall of Honor ceremony will be announced in the coming weeks.

Robert Griffin

Robert Paul Griffin was born November 6, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan. The son of an auto factory foreman, Griffin spent his youth working on auto assembly lines. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1943-1946 before graduating from Central Michigan University in 1947. He went on to earn his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1950. Griffin practiced law in Traverse City, Michigan until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for Michigan's Ninth Congressional District in 1956.

During Griffin's time in the House, national concerns arose about union corruption and organized crime as the result of highly publicized hearings in the Senate's "McClellan Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management." The McClellan Committee's findings prompted a call for congressional action. Griffin worked across the aisle with a fellow member of the Education and Labor Committee, Representative Phil Landrum (GA). Legislation introduced by Griffin and Landrum gained widespread support on Capitol Hill and from the Eisenhower Administration. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, also referred to as the Landrum-Griffin Act, was signed into law on September 14, 1959. This landmark legislation promotes democracy and combats corruption within unions through requirements such as annual public financial disclosures and periodic secret ballot elections.

Griffin served five terms in the House of Representatives prior to his appointment to a vacant U.S. Senate seat in 1966. He won reelection to the seat in 1972. From 1966 to 1968, Griffin sat on the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, the authorizing Committee of the LMRDA and the predecessor to the current Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. From 1969-1977, Griffin served as the Senate Minority Whip. Following his time in the Senate, he returned to Traverse City to practice law until his election to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1986. He served on the Court until his retirement in 1994. He died in 2015 and was 91 years old.

Howard Jenkins, Jr.

Howard Jenkins, Jr. was born in Denver, Colorado in 1915. He attended the University of Denver for both undergraduate (1936) and law school (1941). During World War II, Jenkins worked for the Denver War Production Board before his appointment as the Regional Attorney for the National War Labor Board in 1943. In 1945, he became the Chief Regional Enforcement Officer at the National Wage Stabilization Board working under then-Chairman W. Willard Wirtz. From 1946-1956, Jenkins served on the faculty of Howard University's Law School, focusing on labor law and administrative law.

In 1956, Jenkins joined the Office of the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor as a Special Assistant, assisting in drafting the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. Because of his involvement in the drafting of the landmark legislation, Jenkins was chosen as the Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Regulation at the Bureau of Labor Management Reports, and in 1962 was promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Regulation at the Bureau of Labor Management Reports, which oversaw compliance of the LMRDA.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Jenkins to the National Labor Relations Board in 1963. Jenkins, the first African American to serve as Board Member at the NLRB, was sworn in on August 28, 1963, the day after the civil rights march on Washington, D.C. Jenkins was later reappointed to the Board by Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, and served as a board member for 20 years. Among his most notable contributions to the development of our nation's labor law, Jenkins helped establish the board's policy of refusing to help labor organizations that practiced racial discrimination. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 87.

The mission of the U.S. Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.