The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. William P. Connery, Jr. (chairman), presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. The other members will be in shortly. We do not want to lose any time, so the Senator can have all of the time that he wants. The bill that is before us this morning that these hearings are being held on, are H. R. 6288, the Connery bill in the House, which is exactly similar to the bill which Senator Wagner previously introduced in the Senate. (The bill under consideration is as follows:) [H. R. 6288, 74th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To promote equality of bargaining power between employers and employees, to diminish the causes of labor disputes, to create a National Labor Relations Board, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, DECLARATION OF POLICY SECTION 1. Equality of bargaining power between employers and employees is not attained when the organization of employers in the corporate and other forms of ownership association is not balanced by the free exercise by employees of the right to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Experience has proved that in the absence of such equality the resultant failure to maintain equilibrium between the rate of wages and the rate of industrial expansion impairs economic stability and aggravates recurrent depressions, with consequent detriment to the general welfare and to the free flow of commerce. Denials of the right to bargain collectively lead also to strikes and other manifestations of economic strife, which create further obstacles to the free flow of commerce. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to remove obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to provide for the general welfare by encouraging the practice of collective bargaining, and by protecting the exercise by the worker of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of his own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of his employment or their mutual aid or protection. SEC. 2. When used in this Act 66 DEFINITIONS (1) The term person " includes one or more individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, or receivers. (2) The term “employer" includes any person acting in the interest of an employer, directly or indirectly, but shall not include the United States, or 1 66 any State or political subdivision thereof, or any person subject to the Railway Labor Act, as amended from time to time, or any labor organization, or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of such labor organization. (3) The term employee shall include any employee, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless the Act explicitly states otherwise, and shall include any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, but shall not include any individual employed as an agricultural laborer, or in the domestic service of any family or person at his home, or any individual employed by his parent or spouse. (4) The term ' representatives" includes any individual or labor organization. 66 (5) The term "labor organization." means any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, or hours of employment. 66 (6) The term commerce means trade or commerce, or any transportation or communication relating thereto, among the several States, or between the District of Columbia or any Territory of the United States and any State or other Territory, or between any foreign country and any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or within the District of Columbia or any Territory, or between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign country. 66 (7) The term 'affecting commerce means in commerce, or burdening or affecting commerce, or abstructing the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute that might burden or affect commerce or obstruct the free flow of commerce. (8) The term “unfair labor practice" means any unfair labor practice listed in section 8. (9) The term "labor dispute" includes any controversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee. (10) The term "National Labor Relations Board" means the National Labor Relations Board created by section 3 of this Act. (11) The term "old Board means the National Labor Relations Board established by Executive order of the President on June 29, 1934, pursuant to Public Resolution Numbered 44, approved June 19, 1934 (48 Stat. 1183). NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD SEC. 3. (a) There is hereby created as an independent agency in the executive branch of the Government a board, to be known as the "National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter referred to as the "Board"), which shall be composed of three members, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. One of the original members shall be appointed for a term of one year, one for a term of three years, and one for a term of five years, but their successors shall be appointed for terms of five years each, except that any individual chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of the member whom he shall succeed. The President shall designate one member to serve as chairman of the Board. (b) A vacancy in the Board shall not impair the right of the remaining members to exercise all the powers of the Board, and two members of the Board shall, at all times, constitute a quorum. The Board shall have an official seal which shall be judicially noticed. SEC. 4. (a) Each member of the Board shall receive a salary of $10,000 a year, shall be eligible for reappointment, and shall not engage in any other business, vocation, or employment. The Board shall appoint such employees, and, without regard for the provisions of the civil-service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, appoint and fix the compensation of an executive secretary, assistant executive secretaries, and such attorneys, special experts, examiners, and regional directors, as it may from time to time find necessary for the proper performance of its duties and as may be from time |