MANAGEMENT: Richfield Case

Corporations must bargain with unions on stock purchase plans if the company contributes toward purchase of shares. So ruled the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington last week in a precedent-setting decision. In a case involving Richfield Oil Corp. and the C.I.O.'s International Oil Workers Union, the court upheld a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Richfield's stock plan (jointly financed by worker and company contributions) was in effect a wage increase, thus a bargaining matter. Richfield, which will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, argued that the ruling "permits the union to represent employees not only as employees but also in their capacity as stockholders." Many a company planning stock plans for employees will be loth to start them under the new ruling.