Bad-Faith Bargaining?

During negotiations, labor unions have often harassed management with slowdowns and other nuisance tactics to get better contracts. Three years ago, the National Labor Relations Board tried to ban such economic pressures, said they constituted a "lack of good faith" in collective bargaining. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously slapped down the NLRB, upheld the rights of the unions to pressure management.

The case involved a slowdown called by the Insurance Agents' International Union during a contract dispute with the Prudential Insurance Co. in 1956. The union did not call a strike, but urged its member-agents to snipe at the company by refusing to write any new business, work scheduled hours, or make required reports. Prudential filed an unfair labor practice charge that was upheld by the NLRB, but subsequently set aside by the U.S. Court of Appeals and appealed by the NLRB. In the meantime, Prudential reached an agreement with the union, signed a new contract which it renewed last September.

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