NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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.