NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

•
2 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
It is now a matter of history that thousands of workers turned to the
Board for redress of grievances centering around the issue of the
right to belong to and function through a labor organization. But
what is clearer now than at that time is the growing tendency, where
the issue of organization is involved, for labor organizations to turn
more to the Board than resort to strikes. So marked did this trend
become that at the end of the fiscal year the number of workers involved
in Board cases exceeded those involved in strikes throughout
the country. A month-by-month comparison of the number of strikes
with the number of cases brought before the Board reveals the degree
to which workers turn to the Board as against their resort to strikes.
Table I and chart A. 2 indicate that in 1936 and in the spring of
1937, strikes exceeded cases brought before the Board. However,
since May 1937, the month after the Supreme Court found the act
constitutional, the number of cases before the Board has outdistanced
the number of strikes. In the calendar year 1936 the number of
Board cases was 67 percent of the number of strikes. In 1937 this
percentage increased to 221. This upward trend was maintained during
the first 6 months of 1938. If the number of Board cases is
compared with the number of strikes in which organization was the
major issue (that being the issue over which cases are brought before
the Board), then the proportion of Board cases to such strikes is
considerably greater, as is shown by column 3 of table I. Even for
the calendar year 1936 and the spring of 1937, the number of cases
brought to the Board in which organization was the major issue was
greater than the number of strikes caused by this issue. But after
the validation of the National Labor Relations Act by the Supreme
Court, there occurred an extraordinary increase in Board cases as
compared with the number of organization strikes. In 1936 the number
of Board cases was 134 percent of the number of organization
strikes. In the calendar year 1937 the percentage increased to 391,
and the figures for 1938 indicate a continuation of this trend.
A similar situation exists with reference to the number of workers
involved in strikes and in Board cases. Table No. II and chart B
reveal that in 1936 the number of workers in Board cases was 68 percent
of the number of workers involved in strikes. In 1937 this percentage
increased to 129. If the number of workers involved only in
strikes centering around the major issue of organization—the ground
on which cases are brought to the Board—is considered, the percentage
of Board cases over such strikes is much greater, as indicated
in column 3 of table II. During 1936 and running into the
spring of 1937 there was considerable fluctuation in the ratio of the
number of workers involved in Board cases to those involved in organization
strikes. On a month-to-month basis, the former would be
greater at one time and the latter at another. Thus for the months
of February, April, May, August, September, October, and December
• of 1936, and January and March of 1937, the number of workers
involved in Board cases was less than the number involved in organization
strikes, the percentages being as follows: February 1936, 15 percent;
April, 26 percent; May, 58 percent; August, 19 percent; September,
31 percent; October, 41 percent; December, 35 percent; January
2 The tables and charts referred to in this section will be found in appendix A.