NATIONAL LAB RELATIONS BOARD - National Labor Relations ...

14 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARDcases received during the preceding fiscal year. Individual personspresented 558 cases involving 51,000 workers.Disposition, of all eases, total.—Of the 10,290 cases on docket duringthe fiscal year, 72 percent were closed during the same period. Interms of number of workers involved the percentage was 59. Duringthe preceding'year, when the number of cases on docket was substantiallythe same, 62 percent of them were closed. These closed casesrepresented 42 percent in terms of workers involved. The increase inBoard activity is also evident in absolute figures. The number ofcases closed during the past year, 7,354, exceeded the number forthe preceding year by almost 1,000, and the number of workers increasedsimilarly. Of the total number of cases closed, 3,284 wereA. F. of L. cases and 2,881 were C. I. 0. cases; the latter group, however,involved almost twice as many workers, 800,000, compared with492,000.An overwhelming proportion of all cases closed during the pastfiscal year, as in previous years, were disposed of before any kindof formal action was taken, i. e., before the issuance of a complaintin unfair labor practice cases and before the issuance of a notice ofhearing in representation cases. Only 17.1 percent of all cases closedwere involved in formal proceedings. The percentage in terms ofworkers involved was considerably higher (26.7 percent), chiefly becauseof the large number of workers affected by certifications forcollective bargaining representatives.Of the 6,098 cases closed before formal action, 2,805 were settled,representing 38 percent of the total number of cases closed; 1,244cases representing 17 percent were dismissed ; and 2,020 cases representing28 percent were withdrawn by the complainant or petitioner.The bulk of the remaining 1,256 cases closed during the year weredisposed of through certification of bargaining representatives orthrough compliance with a Board decision or court order.This general distribution of cases by methods of disposition doesnot differ noticeably from the patterns of earlier years. The majorityof cases brought before the Board are settled informally withoutthe issuance of a complaint or notice of hearing. Relativelyfew cases are disposed of between the time that formal action isinitiated and a final Board decision is reached. Approximatelytwo-thirds of the cases involved in formal proceedings and disposedof during the past year were not finally closed until after a. Boardor court decision.At the end. of the fiscal year, on June 30, 1940, there were a totalof 2,936 cases pending, involving roughly 1,000,000 workers. On thesame date in 1939, 4,113 cases, involving 1,500,000 workers, werepending. Approximately three-quarters of the cases pending inJune 1940 were unfair labor practice cases; the exact division was2,172 unfair labor practice cases and 764 representation cases.Disposition of all eases, by types of petitioner and complainant.—The disposition of cases by types of petitioner and complainant did notdiffer from the over-all patterns. The majority of the 3,284 A. F.of L. cases closed during the year, involving 72 percent of workersinvolved, were closed before formal action. Only 14 percent of thecases became involved in formal proceedings; the largest number ofthese, 5 percent of the total number of cases closed, were disposed of