W L. M. R. A. in Operation ITH the close of the 1950 fiscal year on June 30, 1950, the National Labor Relations Board completed its second full fiscal year of enforcing the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947.1 The Board's duties, in carrying out the statutory objectives of "encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining”2 and of "protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association” 3 for the purposes of collective bargaining, continued to be (1) the remedy and prevention of unfair labor practices by either employers or labor organizations; (2) the conduct of elections to determine the choice of employees for a bargaining representative, if any; and (3) the conduct of polls to determine whether or not employees wish to authorize their bargaining agent to negotiate a union-shop contract. The number of unfair labor practice charges and the number of petitions for representation elections each showed an increase of about 10 percent over the preceding fiscal year. However, an over-all decrease of 16 percent in the total of cases of all types resulted from a long-anticipated decline of nearly half in the number of petitions for union-shop authorization polls. The marked decrease in unionshop petitions did not bring about a corresponding decrease in demand for Board investigatory and decisional activity because, on an average, less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the union-shop cases required a hearing, decision, or other type of formal action. The remaining 99.8 percent of these cases was closed by consent agreements for the conduct of polls or by other informal action in the field offices. A total of 21,632 cases of all types was filed with the Board during fiscal 1950. This compares with 25,874 cases of all types filed 1 The Labor Management Relations Act, known also as the Taft-Hartley law, was enacted by Congress June 23, 1947, and took effect August 22, 1947. The Board enforces Title I, which amended the National Labor Relations Act. The Board's operations in previous fiscal years under the Labor Management Relations Act are discussed in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Annual Reports. * Paragraph 5 of sec. 1 of the amended act, "Findings and Policies." See footnote 2, supra. Filings of unfair practice cases increased 9.3 percent, while representation cases increased 10.7 and the total for these two major types of cases increased 10.2 percent. "Detailed statistics of the agency's operations during the fiscal year 1950 are set forth in appendix B. during the 1949 fiscal year. Charges of unfair labor practices, against employers or unions, were filed in 5,809 cases during fiscal 1950, compared with 5,314 cases in the preceding year. Petitions for representation elections of all types were filed in 9,279 cases during 1950, compared with 8,370 cases filed during the preceding year. Petitions for union-shop authorization polls totaled 6,544, compared with 12,190 such petitions filed during fiscal 1949. The Board closed 20,640 cases of all types during the fiscal year 1950.6 This compares with 32,796 cases of all types closed during fiscal 1949. Again, the decline was largely the result of the sharp decrease in union-shop authorization polls. During fiscal 1950, the Board closed 5,615 cases involving charges of unfair labor practices against either employers or unions; this compared with 4,664 such cases closed during the preceding fiscal year. During fiscal 1950, the Board closed 8,761 representation cases of all types, compared with 9,245 during the 1949 fiscal year. Only 6,264 union-shop authorization cases, however, were closed during the 1950 fiscal year, compared with 18,887 during the preceding year. This sharp decline in the closing of union-shop cases resulted directly from a corresponding decline in the filing of petitions for union-shop authorization. Because of the absence of contested issues in all but a small portion of cases of this type, the Board has been able to maintain the conduct of union-shop polls on a current basis. The Board ended the 1950 fiscal year with only 991 such cases pending. 1. Case Activities of Five-Member Board The 5-member Board, which is the decisional arm of the agency,' issued decisions in 2,951 cases of all types during the fiscal year 1950. This was a decrease of 12 percent from the 3,365 cases in which decisions were issued during fiscal 1949. The Board's output of decisions in fiscal 1950, however, continued more than 47 percent above the 2,005 cases decided during fiscal 1947, the last year of operation with a 3member Board. Practically the entire decrease between 1949 and 1950 was due to a decline in requests for Board certifications in unionshop authorization polls held by regional directors. These certifications were requested in only 5 cases during fiscal 1950, compared with 311 in 1949. The actions by which cases were closed varied from formal decisions by the Board Members to withdrawals by the charging parties and dismissals by the regional directors. Unfair labor practice cases can come to the Board Members for decision only after the General Counsel, after his investigation of the charge filed by the complaining party, issues a formal complaint. Following a hearing on the evidence, a preliminary decision is made by a trial examiner in the form of an "Intermediate Report and Recommended Order" or an order of dismissal. The Board Members ordinarily issue a formal decision in this type of case only if the General Counsel or one of the parties files exceptions to the findings or rulings of the trial examiner. If no exceptions are fled, the trial examiner's recommendations take effect as a Board order. |