Line Held

In two significant decisions--both unanimous and both "antilabor" from the strictly trade-union point of view--the War Labor Board last week stuck to the line it had laid down in earlier orders. The line: 1) no raises above the famed Little Steel formula (TIME, July 27) except for substandard pay; 2) no maintenance of membership lollipops for unions whose members have violated labor's no-strike agreement with WLB (TIME, Sept. 7). The decisions:

> The 186 C.I.O. Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers in the Wilmington, Del. plant of Pyrites Co. Inc. (iron pyrites for making sulfuric acid) had "no proper claim" to further wage increases even though their contract called for them, because they had already been raised to 19% above their January 1941 pay scale. Thus, for the first time, WLB overruled an "escalator" cost-of-living clause in a labor contract.

>For "thoroughly irresponsible disregard of its national obligations . . . a serious strike over comparatively small issues," the Board snatched a maintenance of membership clause away from 600 A.F. of L. Chemical Workers at the East Alton, Ill. plant of Western Cartridge Co. The union had won its security more than a year ago from WLB's predecessor, the National Defense Mediation Board, which bitterly accused Western Cartridge of "what at best must be described as a complete unfamiliarity with the realities of collective bargaining." Last week WLB still thought "the company is by no means blameless for its highly unsatisfactory labor relations," but it gave the workers the worst spanking yet administered to any labor union: though this was the third time WLB has officially punished strikers, it is the first time that the coveted security clause, once gained, has been withdrawn.

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