J. - National Labor Relations Board

INFORMATION DIVISION 161,Throughout the fiscal year the Board was under a continuingchallenge that its activities were not effectuating the purpose of theact to promote industrial peace. Its .newspaper relations in thisrespect, the Board feels, have improved. Although no accuratecheck is practicable, it is obvious that more space than previouslywas given during the fiscal year to the reporting of Board decisionsand to their review by circuit courts of appeals. This more generoususe of space is, in direct proportion, an aid to public understandingof the issues.The editorial interpretation of these issues both reflecting andcreating public opinion, has by the same token become ' more analyticalof basic lab.or problems in degree that editors have had moreaccess to facts in their own news columns. In the previous yeareditors underscored violence in labor disputes and, since editors mustmake their comments on spot news, their conclusions on the meritsof the current disputes were necessarily based on limited evidenceand on emotional statements by the parties involved. However,during the following year (that covered by this report) strike violencewas less in the news and, instead, newspapers went to theoriginal causes of the 1937-38 strike wave as presented by witnessesat Board hearings and in the Board decisions themselves. A moreobjective editorial discussion of dispute cases was the salutary result.Since the period of acceptance of any new law is long, and shouldbe shortened if possible, it may be permissible to point out an omissionwhich newspapers and radio commentators are inclined to makeThis is the failure to make clear that the act should not be heldresponsible for all industrial unrest since its functions are limitedto the protection of self-organization and the procedures of collectivebargaining. The act goes no further than the guidance of thesefirst steps in i the employer-employee relationship, on the suppositionthat newly organized labor and traditionally organized industry willmake their own adjustments according to their separate bargainingskills and their desire to live amicably together. The act of livingtogether under stable agreements, and not the steps which led upto it, constitutes the bone and sinew of the employer-employee relationship.The act contributes nothing more than a space and anatmosphere in which it can grow to useful stature. To distinguishbetween the one field where the act functions and the other wheredemocratic procedures are with difficulty seeking new adjustments,is a clarification which the press is uniquely equipped to make.D. STAGES AT WHICH INFORMATION IS AVAILABLEThe following describes the progressive stages of Board unfairlabor practice and representation cases, and states whether informationis available at each stage or why it is withheld :The fact that charges or petitions have been filed is availableupon inquiry, but details of allegations are withheld becausecharges merely represent unsubstantiated facts and the Boardholds it unfair to employers to make them public prior to itsinvestigation.Formal complaints are issued when investigation reveals abasis for unfair labor practice allegations. Normally, corn-