Evening star., 1948-04-09
| NLRB Votes Authority
Over Auto Sales Firm
Selling Within State
BY the As.oeioted Press

BY a far-reaching 80 decision,
the National Labor Relations Board
today stepped into retail auto
mobile company's affairs even
though the firm makes nearly all
its sales in one State.
Paul M. Herzog, chairman, and
Abe Murdock, a member, attacked
the decision as a general change
in policy" They said the board
has enough to do without enter
ing situations that have ian es-
sentially local flavor"
In a second important policy de-
cision the board ruled against
efforts of the AFL Bricklayers'
Union to set up separate bargain
ing units for bricklayers in the
basic steel industry.
In the retail auto case, the board,
with John M. Houston, James j.
Reynolds, jr., and j. Copeland Gray
on the majority side, ordered an
election at the Liddon White Truck
Co., Nashville, Tenn.
Mechanics at that sales company
will decide whether they want to-
be represented by the International
Association of Machinists Gnde-
pendent) or by no union.
Business Called Interstate.
1t was the boards first official
ruling on the extent of its juris-
diction since the Taft-Hartley Act
went into effect last summer. In
formally, however, the board has
agreed to take cases IN the con-
struction industry, which also here
tofore had been regarded as not
in interstate commerce.
All five members held, that the
Tennessee truck company is in i'm
terstate commerce, even though the
bulk of its sales Is in one State
only.
They ruled that since the firm
gets its trucks from outside Ten
nessee, the board could legally order
an election there.
Mr.. Herzog and Mr.. Murdock, the
two dissenters. said that although
the board could, it should not. They
declared:
"An agency that received 12,500
new cases in the most recent six
month period and closed its book
on March l with $500 cases pend
ing ought not, in our opinion, to
embark upon a search for new
fields to conquer"
Earlier Case Recalled.
Once before, the board took
jurisdiction over an auto sales
company, but that was a firm with
branches in several States. A board
spokesman said the new decision
was the first time the board has
gone into a local firm, thus bas-
ing its ruling almost entirely on
inflow" of materials rather than
outflow"
AS for the AFL bricklayers:
The board unanimously refused
to order elections to set up separate
bargaining units of bricklayers at
two basic steel plants.
The plants are:
The Middletown (Ohio) plant of
the American Rolling Mills Co.,
where the Armco Employees In
dependent Federation, Inc. now is
the bargaining agent for the
workers.
The Lorain, Ohio, plant of the
National Tube Co., where the CIO
Steelworkers' Union is bargaining
agent.
Petitions Opposed.
Both of those unions, and both
companies, had opposed the petit
tions of the bricklayers for the
elections.
These elections, if they had been
held, would have been the first
step toward the establishment of
craft bargaining units in the steel
industry, where bargaining now is
mainly on plant-wide or COM
pany-wide basis.
The bricklayers argued that the
Taft Hartley Act requires the board
to grant them separate units if they
want them. The board decided,
however, that the act still allows
| it to consider the past bargaining
history of a plant.