J. - National Labor Relations Board

VI. REPRESENTATION CASESA. STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF REPRESENTATION CASESSection 9 (c) of the act provides that the Board may investigateall questions concerning the representation of employees. Such proceedingsgenerally involve the holding- of secret elections to determinerepresentatives for the purposes of collective bargaining.Representation cases on docket July 1, 1938, to June 30, 1939.—OnJune 30, 1938, there were pending before the Board and its 22 regionaloffices 1,264 representation cases, involving 596,988 workers.' Thesecases, which were carried over into the fiscal year 1938-39, includedpetitions awaiting action in the regional offices as well as petitionsawaiting final disposition by formal Board decision. During the fiscalyear 1938-39 labor organizations filed a total of 2,286 petitions, involvino-482,182 workers. Thus, during the fiscal year the Boardhad before it 3,550 petitions, involving 1,079,170 workers. A largeproportion of these petitions was disposed of during the fiscal yeareither through action by the regional offices or through Board decisions.Representation cases closed July 1, 1938, to June 30, 1939.—Uponthe filing of a petition by any labor organization, the regional directorconducts an investigation to determine whether any question of representationaffecting commerce has arisen within the meaning of section9 (c) of the act.If the regioi'41 director decides, after a preliminary investigation,that no question of representation has arisen, the petitioning labororganization is given the opportunity to withdraw its petition. Uponsuch request by the petitioning union, the Board issues an order permittingthe withdrawal of the petition. During the fiscal year 480such petitions were withdrawn, representing 20.5 percent of allpetitions disposed of.If the labor organization filing the petition does not choose to withdrawits petition after notification that, in the opinion of the regionaldirector, no question of representation exists, the regional directorrequests the Board to issue an order dismissing the petition. Duringthe twelve months covered by this report the Board dismissed a totalof 264 representation cases, or 11.3 percent of all representation casesclosed.In a large number of cases in which the regional director finds thata question of representation has arisen, the issue has been resolvedwithout the necessity of instituting formal proceedings. Thus, in 454cases, or 19.4 percent, the regional director settled the issue of representationby securing the consent of all parties involved to an elec-1 The figures given in.=the Third Annual Report (ch. vi, p. 40) were 1,262 cases and589,406 workers. The- revisions were made upon the receipt of additional information fromthe regional offices.42