 Under the new guidelines , the Select Committee 's schedule of hearings slowed . 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 . For a short time early in the year , the Select Committee investigated the International Union of Operating Engineers , and uncovered a limited financial scandal at the top of the union . But the main focus of the committee for the first half of the year was the United Auto Workers . 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 . The Republicans pointed to a lengthy , ongoing , and sometimes violent strike which the UAW was conducting against the Kohler plumbing fixtures company in Wisconsin . Walter Reuther , President of the Auto Workers , told Select Committee investigators that the Kohler Company was committing numerous unfair labor practices against the union and that the union 's books were in order . Despite no evidence of any mismanagement or organized crime infiltration , Kennedy and McClellan went ahead with hearings on the UAW in February 1958 . The five @-@ week series of hearings produced no evidence of corruption . A second set of hearings into the UAW in September 1959 lasted just six days , and once more uncovered no evidence of UAW malfeasance . The September 1959 hearings were the last public hearings the embarrassed committee ever held . 
