Closing the Portal

Just ten months ago, a shrewd labor lawyer named Edward Lamb won a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Michigan's Mt. Clemens Pottery Co.--and thereby opened the door to over $5 billion in portal-to-portal back-pay suits. Then the case was sent back to Detroit's federal court, where it had started, to determine how much was due the pottery workers. This time Lamb did not fare so well.

The Department of Justice, scared by the political furor over portal pay, asked that the claims be thrown out, on the grounds that they were trifling. (The Supreme Court had advised that all "trifling" amounts be ignored.) The Detroit court agreed. So three weeks ago Lawyer Lamb appealed, starting the case up to the Supreme Court again. The Department of Justice, hoping that the Court would reverse itself and kill portal pay for good, obligingly asked for a quick hearing.

Last week, Lawyer Lamb proved that he was still shrewd. He dropped the Mt. Clemens suit. To him, and the Mt. Clemens workers, the game did not seem worth the gamble. At best, they could not hope to collect more than a few thousand dollars. At worst, a Supreme Court reversal would kill all the pending portal suits--and rob union labor of one of its most potent bargaining weapons.

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