NLRB Draws the Line

In the first decisions under its new policy to exempt small firms from the Taft-Hartley Act (TIME, July 26), the National Labor Relations Board last week split on where the line should be drawn. Last summer, when NLRB first announced that it would narrow its jurisdiction to exclude small retailers, utility companies, etc., and concentrate on companies having an important impact on interstate commerce, there was no dissent. But when NLRB last week showed what it meant by turning down six of eight union requests for federal supervision of bargaining elections,* the decision divided the five-man board on straight party lines. Board Member Abe Murdock, former Democratic Senator, charged that the board was abdicating its responsibilities, and that the decision of the Republican majority amounted to a "usurpation of legislative power by an administrative agency.'' By this "wholesale slash," said he, "it seems probable that at least 25% and perhaps . . . 33 1/3% of our past jurisdiction is now eliminated." With equal fervor his fellow Democrat Ivar H. Peterson protested that the limits had been set "arbitrarily" and"capriciously." But NLRB Chairman Guy Farmer, speaking for the three-man Republican majority, estimated that the change would affect only about 1% of all employees previously covered.

* Accepted: Newport News (Va.) Daily Press, Inc., Houston's Maytag Aircraft Corp. Rejected: Jonesboro (Ark.) Grain Drying Cooperative, the Greenwich (Conn.) Gas Co., two Memphis supermarkets, a Houston real- estate firm, a Hannibal (Mo.) trucking company, Detroit's Wilson-Oldsmobile, an auto dealer.

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