Railroads trying to eliminate featherbedding ran into a red light from the U.S. Supreme Court last week. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that roads must bargain with unions on the elimination of jobs.
The decision was made on a case that began in 1956 when rambunctious Ben Heineman, lawyer turned railroader (TIME, Dec. 15, 1958), stepped into command of the money-losing Chicago & North Western. Heineman found that some telegraph operators at one-man stations scattered along North Western's 9,288-mile route worked as little as 15 minutes a day, yet...
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