NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

248 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployer in violation of the Act. The Division gathered and prepared
evidence providing the background upon which the nature of the
new organization could be evaluated. It described the sudden growth
of the "independent union" after the establishment of the Act's constitutionality
and traced the pattern of characteristics which it had
quite consistently found in a large number of "independents" examined.
The analysis of characteristics showed that the new organizations
were usually crude adaptations of 'former employer-dominated
company unions, and that there was on the whole no machinery for
effective collective bargaining, for stable existence independent of the
employer, and for democratic control by the membership.
Similar material was prepared for cases in which there were involved
any of a group of organizations which have recently appeared
coincidentally with efforts • of unions to organize plants. These
included Citizens' Committees, vigilante groups, and back-to-work
movements. An analysis of the growth and characteristics of a large
number of these organizations throughout the country and in previous
periods of union activity was made. It revealed a recurring pattern
of employer-inspired antiunion activity. This material was submitted
as a background against which the nature and activities of
particular organizations could be evaluated.
Other problems of labor relations toward the determination of
which the Division prepared and submitted economic material
included : (1) The status of striking employees after notice of discharge
during a strike ; (2) the right to reinstatement of illegally
discharged employees who have obtained substantially equivalent employment
elsewhere ; (3) the right of employees to be transferred at
the employer's expensd, when reinstatement under a Board order
involves their transfer to a distant plant; and (4) the significance of
union recognition in collective bargaining.
Another type of research in labor relations in which the Division
engaged was required in some cases where the significance and extent
of the alleged illegal acts of the respondent could be completely ascertained
only by reference to the history of the employer's labor policy
as shown by its relations with outside labor unions and with its own
personnel. A nation-wide case involving the Western Union Telegraph
Co. illustrates this type Among the important issues were
the role of the company in establishing the Association of Western
Union Employees in 1918, the company's relations with the National
War Labor Board, the alleged use of the Association to oppose outside
unions, and the extent, if any, to which respondent had assisted,
maintained, and dominated the Association since 1918, and especially
since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act. The Association
contended that certain practices, such as the check-off, preferential
treatment to its members, free railroad transportation, and use
of company property and bulletin boards, were identical with those
which characterized employer relations with the railroad brotherhoods
and other unions, and were therefore not an indication of
employer support and domination. An exhaustive analysis of the
labor policy of the company and of the history of the Association was
made by the Division in order to assist in the determination of these
and other disputed facts.