direction of the Board. The Review Division was abolished by the following amendment to section 4 (a) of the act: The Board may not employ any attorneys for the purpose of reviewing transcripts of hearings or preparing drafts of opinions except that any attorney employed for assignment as a legal assistant to any Board member may for such Board member review such transcripts and prepare such drafts. With the elimination of the Review Division, the individual Board members assumed the work of reviewing transcripts and writing decisions; and each Board member employed a staff of legal assistants to assist him in performing such duties.1 To manage the mechanics of docketing cases, assigning cases, scheduling matters for consideration by the Board Members, and performing miscellaneous coordinating and liasion functions, the Board Members appointed an executive secretary and assistant executive secretary to serve as the administrative and management agents of the Board. A solicitor and assistant solicitor were appointed to serve as the Board's legal officers and advisers on general legal problems.2 The Division of Information was preserved with no major changes in functions, but with responsibility for serving the Board and the Office of the General Counsel simultaneously. It makes available such information as the public requires concerning operations and activities of the agency. The Division of Trial Examiners likewise was preserved with no major changes in functions, except for the enlarged scope of unfair labor practices with which it deals under the amended act. Their independent status already firmly established by provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act passed by Congress in 1946, the individual trial examiners' exercise of independent judgment was further directed by the following amendment to section 4 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act: No trial examiner's report shall be reviewed either before or after its publication, by any person other than a member of the Board or his legal assistant, and no trial examiner shall advise or consult with the Board with respect to exceptions taken to his findings, rulings, or recommendations. Another amendment, appearing in section 10 (c), provided that a trial examiner's recommended order in any case shall automatically become the order of the Board unless exceptions are filed within a stipulated period. The decision-making procedures of the Board operate as follows in unfair labor practice cases: Upon issuance of a complaint and notice of hearing by a regional director under the supervision of the General Counsel, the chief trial examiner, or one of two associate chief trail examiners designates a trial examiner to conduct the hearing. In conducting a hearing, the trial examiner functions as a trial judge, regulating the course of the hearing, ruling upon motions, granting applications for subpenas, ruling upon petitions to revoke subpenas, ruling upon offers of proof, and receiving relevant evidence. An official reporter makes a verbatim transcript of the testimony and argument. After the close of a hearing and the study of briefs sub 1 Each staff works under the supervision of a chief legal assistant. During the fiscal year the five chief legal assistants were: Mervin N. Bachman, Raymond J. Compton, Louis Libbin, Robert T. McKinlay, and Louis Newman. Herbert Fuchs served as solicitor during the fiscal year. CA-Employer unfair labor practices. CB-Union unfair labor practices. CC-Union unfair labor practices involving injunction. CD-Union unfair labor practices involving boycotts and strikes arising fron jurisdictinal disputes. CHART 3. Unfair labor practice cases filed against employers and unions, August 22, 1947-June 30, 1948 AGAINST UNION 22.7% mitted by the parties, the trial examiner prepares and serves upon the parties an intermediate report containing findings of fact, conclusions of law, and recommendations. Upon issuance of the intermediate report the case is transferred from the trial examiner to the Board. If no exceptions are filed by the General Counsel or any party to the case within 20 days after service of the intermediate report or within such further period as the Board may authorize, the Board enters an order adopting the intermediate report as its own order. If exceptions to the intermediate report are filed with the Board, the executive secretary assigns the case to one Board Member, on the basis of automatic rotation, for complete analysis of the transcript of the hearing and exhibits, the intermediate report, exceptions, and briefs; and he distributes copies of intermediate reports, exceptions, and briefs to the other Board members for their examination. Upon completion of his study of the case with the help of his legal assistants, the assigned Board Member reports the case to his colleagues on the Board and then drafts a decision based upon their conclusions. The draft of decision circulates among other Board Members for approval or revision. Upon approval it is served upon the parties and published. The decision-making procedures in representation cases are somewhat different. Upon issuance of a notice of hearing by a regional director, the hearing is usually conducted by an officer attached to the regional office, rather than by a trial examiner. By the provisions of section 9 (c) (1) of the act, as amended, the hearing officer is precluded from making any recommendation to the Board. The case is transferred directly to the Board upon close of hearing without service of any report upon the parties. The case is then assigned to a Board Member for analysis and handled to a conclusion with routines similar to those in complaint cases. Appeals to the Board from regional directors' dismissals of representation petitions, pursuant to section 9 of the act, are analyzed by an Appeals Committee consisting of the chief legal assistants of the five Board Members, with the assistance of the executive secretary and the solicitor. The Appeals Committee makes recommendations to the Board concerning disposition of the appeals, but the Board Members themselves take final action upon the appeals. Except in rare instances, the rulings of the Board upon appeals from administrative actions of regional directors are not announced by signed opinions of the Board Members, but are transmitted to the parties by letter from the executive secretary. The essential facts in any appeal case, together with the conclusion of the Board, are made available to the public through the Division of Information, but normally are not otherwise published by the Board. Usually they involve only reiterations of established Board policy and do not themselves involve resolution of novel questions.3 During the first few months of Board operations after the amendments to the act, all members of the Board usually participated in deciding all cases. Early in 1948, however, as policies and principles began to be established, the Board devised a system by which most Exceptions may be found, however, in the Board's decisions on appeal in Northern Virginia Broadcasters, Inc., 75 N. L. R. B. 11 and in Giant Food Shopping Center Inc., 77 N. L. R. B. 791 in which the Board for the first time expressed itself on basic questions of law and policy under the amended act. |