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NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

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146 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF <strong>NATIONAL</strong> <strong>LABOR</strong> <strong>RELATIONS</strong> <strong>BOARD</strong><br />

(E) CONDUCT OF THE ELECTION<br />

The direction of elections issued by the Board leave the details<br />

of the election procedure to be determined by the person who is<br />

named as the Board's representative to conduct the election. 12 Ordinarily<br />

each voter must personally cast his ballot in the presence of,<br />

and at a place designated by, the representative of the Board. In<br />

some instances, however, the Board has permitted voting by mail.<br />

Thus, in Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company 18 and in Matter<br />

of Pacific Greyhound Lines," the Board said :<br />

We expressly authorize the use of the United States mail for such purposes<br />

and the use of agents, if feasible, to journey through the Company's various<br />

territorial divisions to conduct elections at appropriate places, collecting the<br />

votes in sealed envelopes for delivery to the Regional Director.<br />

In Matter of United Press Associations,' 5 the terms and conditions<br />

of the election were agreed upon in stipulations entered into by the<br />

parties, and the secret ballot was conducted through the mails and<br />

by cablegrams To be acceptable, all returned ballots had to show a<br />

postmark of not later than midnight of a given date.16<br />

In Matter of Charles Cushman Shoe Company,' 7 the Board's direction<br />

provided f9r elections to be conducted among those persons in<br />

the appropriate unit employed as of March 24, 1937. In regard to<br />

an objection to the elections which had been conducted the Board<br />

said :<br />

Persons were permitted to vote in an election by signing affidavits to the<br />

effect that they were employed by the particular company involved in such<br />

election on March 24, 1937. The objection is made that voting lists against<br />

which to check the voters should have been provided by the Board and that the<br />

carrying out of the elections by means of affidavits violated the Direction for<br />

Elections issued by the Board and was injurious to the parties involved. The<br />

Direction for Elections authorized the Regional Director to conduct elections by<br />

secret ballot in accordance with Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relaballots<br />

cast they should be disregarded in tabulating the effective vote. Under such an<br />

arrangement these ballots would merely have filled the role of indicating to the Board that<br />

less than a majority of those voting do not desire to be represented by either labor organization.<br />

The wishes of this minority should then properly be held ineffective to prevent a<br />

choice of representative by the majority of the employees who desire representation by one<br />

of the contending agencies.<br />

"If a majority of those casting ballots should mark their ballots in the 'or by neither'<br />

space, no representatives should be certified. Otherwise, the choice of a majority of<br />

employees voting in favor of representation by one of the rival organizations should be<br />

declared to be the representative of all.<br />

'The purpose of an election under the Act is to allay an existing controversy over representation.<br />

The heart of that controversy in the case before us is the wishes of the active<br />

partisans for either of the candidates. It has already happened in the Board's experience<br />

with the use of the 'or by neither' place on the ballot that a minority of a very few ballots<br />

so marked can destroy the bargaining choice of a large majority of the employees who<br />

have voted for either one or the other contending labor organization. To permit the continuance<br />

of a device which can produce such illogical results seems to me entirely gratuitous,<br />

particularly when it does not appear to be required either by the purposes or the wording<br />

of the Act."<br />

12 See Matter of Woodside Cotton Mills Company and Textile Workers Organizing Committee,<br />

7 N. L. R. B. 960, in which the Board stated : "The parties also agreed that the<br />

election should be held on a day when the mill is in operation (at the present time, the<br />

mill operates only on Monday and Tuesday and is closed the balance Of the week), at the<br />

Woodside Grade School, which is in the vicinity of the mill, and that voting should take<br />

place from 11 a. m. to 8 p. m. This is a matter within the discretion of the Regional<br />

Director in his conduct of the election, but we see no objection to the holding of the election<br />

at the time and place agreed upon by the parties."<br />

2-3 Matter of Pact/to Gas and Electric) Company and United Electrical .1 Radio Workers<br />

of America, 3 N. L. R. B. 835.<br />

14 Matter of Pacific Greyhound Lines and Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen,<br />

4 N. L. R. B. 520.<br />

16 Matter of United Press Associations and American Newspaper Guild, 3 N. L. R. B. 344.<br />

16 The Board has also been faced with serious difficulties in conducting elections involving<br />

maritime workers. For a discussion of the practices followed in these cases, see Second<br />

Annual Report, pp. 111-113.<br />

"Matter of Charles Cushman Shoe Company, et al. and United Shoe Workers of America,<br />

2 N. L. It. B. 1015.

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