1943 - National Labor Relations Board

The N. L. R. B. in the War 3The War and Navy Departments have adopted similar policies withrespect to Government-owned arsenals The adoption of this policyhas tended to promote industrial stability by insuring that in anyclosed-shop agreement the union does at least represent the choice ofthe majority, and therefore conforms with the historic principle ofAmerican jurisprudence that taxation must rest on the consent ofthe governed.In the light of these considerations, it is hoped that Congress willsee fit to remove a recent restriction upon the Board's appropriation(to be discussed more fully hereafter in this Chapter) which to someextent has prevented it from giving full effect to this policy.Although the Board has made changes in its procedures' whichhave shortened the time involved in handling individual cases, itsability to perforat its functions has been handicapped by decreasedappropriations combined with a tremendous loss of experienced personnel.The handicap of large turn-over in the staff, involving theloss to the armed forces of approximately 28 percent of the numberof male employees at the beginning of the year, or 38 percent of thenumber on October 30, 1943, has been accentuated by a total reductionof staff from 889 on July 1, 1942, to 736 on October 30, 1943.Nevertheless'there has been a substantial reduction in the timebetween the filing of charges and petitions and the opening of hearings,the time between the close of hearing and the issuance of IntermediateReports, and the time involved in the review of cases and thepreparation of decisions. It has accordingly been able to close 9,722cases, or 78.8 percent of all on docket during the year. The backlogof pending unfair labor practice cases has been reduced, but thenumber of representation cases on docket at the close of the yearshowed an increase over the previOus year.During the 12 months ending June 30, 1943, a total of 9,543 neweases° were filed with the Board, the third largest number filed in theBoard's history. Representation cases numbered 6,140, the largest.number received in any of the 8 years of the Board's activity. Unfairlabor practice cases decreased, however, to 3,403 cases, or only 36percent of all filed during the year, and were fewer in number than inany of the 5 preceding years. Their decline reflects the extent towhich the purposes of the Act have been accepted in the industrialpractices of employers.The continued increase in representation cases, on the other hand,reflects chiefly the expansion of labor organization into new fields.More than three-fourths of all elections during the year involved onlya choice for or against a single union. In these cases, as well as inthe minority involving a contest between two or more unions, thecustom of using the Board's machinery is well established Thus,most disputes over the right to recognition are settled by orderlySee Ch. II.See Oh. III, and Appendix tables.