The Week

Going the rounds in Poland: Q. What’s the difference between a Soviet dwarf and an American dwarf? A. The Soviet dwarf is bigger.

The United States Court of Appeals in Richmond last week overturned a National Labor Relations Board decision which, if it had been allowed to stand, could have seriously constricted a basic freedom. In a 3-2 decision, the Court declared that “the power to command an employer to stay in business indefinitely or to assess him with damages for permanently going out of business is not an NLRB prerogative. Assumed by the Board in this case, it is denied here.” The ruling dealt with the decision by the Darlington Manufacturing Company of Darlington, South Carolina, to shut down its operations and sell its Darlington plant after its employees had voted to join the United Textile Workers union in 1956. The company’s position was that the Darlington mill, already operating at a loss, could not operate in the black as a unionized shop. The NLRB had found the Darlington Manufacturing Company and its parent company, Deering Milliken, Inc. “guilty of unfair labor practices,” ordering it to pay wages to the 500 workers it had discharged in 1956 until those workers had obtained “substantially equivalent” jobs elsewhere. Judge Albert Bryan, writing the majority opinion, hammered home the basic point: “To go out of business in toto, or to discontinue it in part, permanently, at any time, we think was Darlington’s absolute prerogative.”

Featured Tags

Manage following

Civil Rights

Going the rounds in Poland: Q. What’s the difference between a Soviet dwarf and an American dwarf? A. The Soviet dwarf is bigger.

The United States Court of Appeals in Richmond last week overturned a National Labor Relations Board decision which, if it had been allowed to stand, could have seriously constricted a basic freedom. In a 3-2 decision, the Court declared that “the power to command an employer to stay in business indefinitely or to assess him with damages for permanently going out of business is not an NLRB prerogative. Assumed by the Board in this case, it is denied here.” The ruling dealt with the decision by the Darlington Manufacturing Company of Darlington, South Carolina, to shut down its operations and sell its Darlington plant after its employees had voted to join the United Textile Workers union in 1956. The company’s position was that the Darlington mill, already operating at a loss, could not operate in the black as a unionized shop. The NLRB had found the Darlington Manufacturing Company and its parent company, Deering Milliken, Inc. “guilty of unfair labor practices,” ordering it to pay wages to the 500 workers it had discharged in 1956 until those workers had obtained “substantially equivalent” jobs elsewhere. Judge Albert Bryan, writing the majority opinion, hammered home the basic point: “To go out of business in toto, or to discontinue it in part, permanently, at any time, we think was Darlington’s absolute prerogative.”