TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT - National Labor Relations Board

VI
Enforcement Litigation
Board orders in unfair labor practice proceedings were reviewed
by the courts of appeals in 148 enforcement cases during fiscal 1961 1
Some of the more important issues decided by the respective courts
are discussed in this chapter
1. Employees Protected by the Act—The Agricultural Exclusion
The definition of "employee" in section 5(3) expressly excludes,
among others, "any individual employed as an akricultural laborer"
And a longstanding rider to the Board's annual appropriations act
has the effect of writing into this provision the definition of "agriculture"
set forth in section 3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act
As there defined, "agriculture" consists of "farming in all its
branches and any practices performed by a farmer or on a farm
as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations,
including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market
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In enforcing the Board's order in one case,' the Tenth Circuit
held that these provisions did not exclude from the statutory term
"employee," truckdrivers working for a cooperative milk marketing
association, even though the membership of the cooperative
was limited to farmers Citing a 1949 Supreme Court decision,' the
court pointed out that the employer "entity" here was the cooperative,
not its individual members, and, as it was not itself engaged in
farming, its delivery drivers were not engaged in "practices performed
by a farmer" In another case involving similar facts,' the
Sixth Circuit likewise rejected a claim that the employees of a
farmers' cooperative association were "agricultural laborers" outside
the protection of the act In addition, the court noted that such cooperatives
are not entitled to exemption on the ground that they
are nonprofit organizations
1 Results of enforcement litigation are summarized in table 19 of Appendix A
2 NLRB v Central Oklahoma Milk Producers dean, 285 le 2d 495
8 Farmets Reaervo gr d Irrigation Co McComb, 337 US 755 (1949)
Lucas County Farm Bureau Cooperative Assll N NLRB, 289 F 2d 844
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