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NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

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IV. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED 63<br />

G. THE UNIT APPROPRIATE FOR THE PURPOSES OF COLLECTIVE<br />

BARGAINING<br />

1. IN GENERAL<br />

Section 9 (b) of the Act provides that—<br />

The Board shall decide in each case whether, in order to insure to employees<br />

the full benefit of their right to self-organization and to collective bargaining,<br />

and otherwise to effectuate the policies of this act, the unit appropriate for the<br />

purposes of collective bargaining shall be the employer unit, craft unit, plant<br />

unit, or subdivision thereof.<br />

Such a determination is required in two types of cases : (1) cases<br />

involving petitions for certification of representatives, pursuant to<br />

section 9 (c) of the Act, and (2) cases involving charges that an employer<br />

has refused to bargain collectively with the representatives of<br />

his employees, in violation of section 8 (5) of the Act. In each instance,<br />

a finding as to the appropriate unit is indispensable to the ultimate<br />

decision.<br />

As pointed out in previous annual reports, 31 the complexity of modern<br />

industry, transportation, and communication, and the numerous<br />

and diverse forms which self-organization among employees can take<br />

and has taken, preclude the application of rigid rules to the determination<br />

of the unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.<br />

In attempting to ascertain the groups among which there is that<br />

mutual interest in the objects of collective bargaining which must<br />

exist in an appropriate unit, the Board takes into consideration the<br />

facts and circumstances existing in each case. 32 Thus, in Matter of<br />

Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast, 33 the Board stated the<br />

following:<br />

The parties are not in dispute that comparatively uniform standards for<br />

longshoremen should prevail all along the Pacific Coast. This is the ideal<br />

and was eagerly sought by the union leaders and the articulate rank and file<br />

until the split occurred in the longshoremen's organization in 1937. The Board,<br />

however, must decide upon the appropriate unit not under ideal conditions but<br />

under all the circumstances in each case.'"<br />

The factors which the Board considers in determining which unit<br />

or units are appropriate have been set forth in detail in prior annual<br />

reports.35 During the last fiscal period these factors have been<br />

weighed and evaluated in numerous cases. A number of the more<br />

interesting of these decisions have been selected for discussion.<br />

2. SCOPE OF THE UNIT: INDUSTRIAL, CRAFT OR DEPARTMENTAL<br />

The Board must determine frequently whether the appropriate<br />

unit or units are industrial, including practically all the employees in<br />

the plant; semi-industrial, including a majority of the employees;<br />

multicraft, including skilled workers; craft, including one group of<br />

skilled workers; or some other unit, including part of the employees.<br />

31 Third Annual Report, p. 160; Fourth Annual Report, p. 82; Fifth Annual Report, p. 63.<br />

to See Fourth Annual Report, pp. 82-3; Fifth Annual Report, p. 64.<br />

Matter of Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast etc. and International Longshoremen's<br />

Association, etc., 32 N. L. R. B., No. 124.<br />

'4 "See sec. 9 (b) of the Act."<br />

15 Fourth Annual Report, pp. 82-97; see also Fifth Annual Report, pp. 63-72, and<br />

Third Annual Report, pp. 160-180.

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