National Labor Relations Board v. Porta Systems Corporation

Before the enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act, when “supervisors” were sometimes treated as “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act,1 supervisory employees in Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation mines were organized by the United Mine Workers. Thereafter, the number of discipline slips issued by the supervisors decreased by two-thirds, and the accident rate doubled.2 This was a graphic illustration of the unwisdom of allowing managerial personnel to become subservient to a labor organization whose members they were supposed to supervise.3

Believing that employers should be entitled to…