Against Compulsion

Thirteen states prohibit the union shop.* But the Taft-Hartley law does not bar it, if a majority of employees vote for it. Thus union leaders, in cases involving interstate commerce, have been able to use the federal labor law as a safe refuge from more stringent state laws.

Last week, the National Labor Relations Board closed the Taft-Hartley door with a bang. In a 3-2 decision it ruled that jt will no longer hold union shop elections in states which outlaw it. Such NLRB elections, the majority decided, "would lead only to the circumvention and frustration of State law." For labor leaders who rely on the union shop device to control and hold their memberships, it was a hard blow.

*The 13: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, North Carolina, North & South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

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