Labor Law Reform Act Killed by Filibuster After Business Roundtable Lobbying Blitz

After six cloture attempts fail to break a Senate filibuster, the Labor Law Reform Act of 1978 dies on June 22, marking the most significant corporate lobbying victory since Taft-Hartley and demonstrating that even with Democratic supermajorities and a Democratic president, business interests can block pro-labor legislation. The bill, labor’s top legislative priority, would have strengthened NLRB enforcement, expedited union elections, increased penalties for labor law violations, and allowed union organizers access to workplaces—modest reforms to address the J.P. Stevens-style union-busting epidemic.

The Business Roundtable coordinates a massive lobbying campaign, deploying CEOs to meet personally with senators in an unprecedented effort. The Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers mobilize small business opposition, generating hundreds of thousands of letters to Congress. Corporate PACs, their numbers exploding since the 1974 FECA amendments, pour money into targeted Senate races. The campaign proves that the Powell Memo’s call for coordinated business political action has succeeded: corporations now possess sophisticated infrastructure to defeat labor-friendly legislation.

The defeat devastates organized labor’s political position. Despite 62 senators supporting the bill (and 58 consistently voting for cloture), the filibuster enables a minority to protect corporate union-busting practices. The failure signals that labor law reform is politically impossible even under the most favorable conditions, emboldening corporations to accelerate anti-union tactics. Carter’s inability to deliver labor’s top priority weakens union enthusiasm for Democrats, contributing to Reagan’s 1980 victory. The 1978 defeat marks the inflection point when corporate political power definitively surpassed labor’s influence in Washington, a gap that has only widened in subsequent decades.