INDUSTRIES OVER WHICH THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD HAS TAKEN PARTIAL OR NO JURISDICTION (ACCORDING TO BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATIONS) The total number of strikes decreased from 4,740 in 1937 to 2,772 in 1938, or 42 percent. Of the 4,740 strikes in 1937, 3,184 were in industries over which the Board has taken jurisdiction and 1,556 in industries over which the Board has taken partial or no jurisdiction. Strikes in the former category decreased 48 percent to 1,673 in 1938, while strikes in industries over which the Board has taken partial or no jurisdiction decreased only 29 percent. For workers involved in strikes, this tendency is also apparent, showing a decrease of 66 percent in industries over which the Board has taken jurisdiction as compared with a decrease of only 52 percent in all other industries. Man-days of idleness due to strikes in industries over which the Board has taken jurisdiction decreased 71 percent during this period, whereas man-days of idleness due to strikes in other industries were only 51 percent less. The general trend of strikes during the last year can therefore be described as one of greater decrease in industries in which the Board has applied the act, as against those industries over which the Board has taken only partial or no jurisdiction at all. I think you will also be interested in seeing several of the charts presented by Senator Wagner which we have just had an opportunity to bring down to date. Appendix D to this statement includes the following four tables: Table 1 shows the number of Board cases compared with the number of strikes from October 1935 to February 1939. This is illustrated by chart C. Table 2 shows the number of workers involved in Board cases and the number of workers involved in all strikes from October 1935 to February 1939. This is illustrated by chart D. The black lines indicate the number of Board cases, the gray lines the number of strikes. The CHAIRMAN. Let us see what that means. Mr. MADDEN. This means that in October 1935 there were slightly more Board cases than there were strikes; in other words, the two lines are approximately the same length. In April 1937 the Supreme Court upheld the act, and from that time on, the number of Board cases has infinitely exceeded the number of strikes. The suggestion, of course, is that every one of these grievances which was represented by a Board case had in it at least the potentialities of a strike if there had not been a law to which the workers could have resorted. No one would claim that each one of those cases would have resulted in a strike, but I suppose there is no question but what a considerable proportion of them would have. The CHAIRMAN. Then the helpful trend would be that the longer the black line, and the shorter the gray line? NUMBER 1,500 NUMBER OF STRIKES CONTRASTED WITH NUMBER OF CASES OCTOBER 1935-FEBRUARY 1939 [National Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, April 17, 1939. N. M.-M. W. Board. See appendix D, table 1.] experience. It is not physically dangerous, usually, and it is an educational experience for those engaged in it. And so it is the old story of civilization, of getting away from taking your remedy by self-help and coming in to an orderly tribunal and getting it there. 500 1935 1936 1937 Mr. MADDEN. Yes. It depends on what you want. If you are more disturbed by a strike than you are by a hearing, you would want a long black line and a short white line, and I suppose that that would be the consensus of opinion. A hearing may be an unpleasant THOUSANDS NUMBER OF WORKERS INVOLVED IN STRIKES CONTRASTED OCTOBER 1935-FEBRUARY 1939 [National Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, April 17, 1939. N. M.-M. W. Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Labor Relations Board. See appendix D, table 2.] wages and hours, and where there is not any question of interference with organization. Where it is simply a disagreement between the employer and the union as to what are the proper terms of employ CONSTITUTIONALITY DETERMINED APRIL 12 D J 1935 1936 1937 Table 3 shows the number of Board cases compared with the number of organization strikes from October 1935 to December 1938. This is illustrated by chart E. There, of course, the white line is still smaller, because it does not represent all strikes. It excludes, for example, strikes relating to NUMBER OF ORGANIZATION STRIKES CONTRASTED WITH THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD [National Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, April 17, 1939. N. M.-M. W. Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Labor Relations Board. See appendix D, table 3.] will, as to what is the right pay or what are the right hours of work. So that the improvement shown by this chart, of course, is very much greater than shown by the preceding one. Table 4 shows the number of workers involved in Board cases and the number of workers involved in organization strikes from October 144458-39-pt. 19 500 ORGANIZATION STRIKES BOARD CASES 1935 1936 J J A S O N D JI 1937 ment. The act does not do anything to prevent such strikes except to greatly encourage the processes of negotiation by which such strikes may be settled, but it certainly does not prevent employers and employees from disagreeing as they always have and perhaps always CHART E NUMBER OF WORKERS INVOLVED IN ORGANIZATION STRIKES [National N. M.-M. W. Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, April 17, 1939. Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Labor Relations Board. See appendix D, table 4.] Board, than there were of workers who were represented by pickets before the plants of employers. The CHAIRMAN. Is the Board doing anything to try to encourage an appeal to them rather than an appeal to strike? 200 WORKERS INVOLVED IN ORGANIZATION STRIKES 100 1935 CONSTITUTIONALITY DETERMINED APRIL 12 1935 to December 1938. This is illustrated by chart F. There again you have the same trend. In other words, for December 1938 there were some five times as many workers represented in hearings before the Board, that is, their interests were somehow or other involved in hearings before the 300 300 |