What's a Foreman, Pop?

Like a timid old lady crossing a street, the National Labor Relations Board has not been able to make up its mind on the knotty problem of foremen's unions. Last week it changed its mind again. This time it said foremen have the right to organize under the Wagner Act, a flat reversal of its ruling two years ago. Foremen, once regarded as bosses, were now held to be employes with no managerial power.

What made the board flip-flop was Detroit's pugnacious young Foremen's Association of America, an independent union. To enforce its bargaining demands, it had called a series of strikes in Detroit's war plants (TIME, May 15-22), hog-tied war production. By giving in, NLRB hopefully expects to avoid further "industrial strife." But the dissenting board member, Gerard D. Reilly, snapped that the ruling smacks of a "peace-at-any-price" policy.

For U.S. industry, the price may be high. The F.A.A., which has gone right on organizing without benefit of NLRB, now claims 36,000 members. With NLRB help, it now hopes to organize all supervisory employes in U.S. industry--unless NLRB changes its mind again.

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