The Board's output of decisions in representation and unfair labor practice cases showed a decrease of less than 3 percent from the 1949 output. The Board Members issued decisions in 2,900 representation and unfair labor practice cases. This compares with 2,982 such cases decided in fiscal 1949. Decisions were issued in 417 unfair labor practice cases, compared with 484 in the preceding fiscal year; and in 2,483 representation cases, compared with 2,498 decided the preceding year.

Of the unfair labor practice cases decided by the Board, 315 involved charges against employers and 102 involved charges against unions. The Board Members directed representation elections in 1,630 cases, and dismissed petitions for elections in 292 cases.

The Board Members had 376 cases awaiting decision on June 30, 1950, the end of the fiscal year. Of these, 240 were representation cases and 136 were unfair labor practice cases.

a. Jurisdiction of the Board

One of the major problems confronting the Board from time to time since its establishment in 1935 has been the extent to which it should assert its jurisdiction. The courts have held that the Board's authority over representation questions and unfair labor practices "affecting" interstate commerce (except on airlines and railroads and in agriculture) is as broad as the Federal power to regulate labor-management relations. The Board, however, has long taken the position that it will better effectuate the purposes of the act "not to exercise its jurisdiction to the fullest extent possible under the authority delegated to it by Congress, but to limit that exercise to enterprises whose operations have, or at which labor disputes would have, a pronounced impact upon the flow of interstate commerce."9 For many years, the question of where to draw the line necessarily turned upon the facts of each case as it came before the Board for decision. In October 1950, after long study of the pattern emerging from past decisions, the Board issued a series of unanimous decisions,10 setting forth more precisely the standards to govern its future exercise of jurisdiction. The Board said: "The time has come, we believe, when experience warrants the establishment and announcement of certain standards which will better clarify and define where the difficult line can best be drawn." 99 11

N. L. R. B. v. Fainblatt, 306 U. S. 606.

Hollow Tree Lumber Company, 91 NLRB No. 113.

10 WBSR, Inc., NLRB No. 110; Local Transit Lines (Knoxville, Tenn.), 91 NLRB No. 96; The Borden Company, 91 NLRB No. 109; Stanislaus Implement and Hardware Co., Ltd., 91 NLRB No. 116; Hollow Tree Lumber Co., supra; Federal Dairy, Inc., 91 NLRB No. 107; Dorn's House of Miracles, Inc., 91 NLRB No. 82; The Rutledge Paper Products, Inc., 91 NLRB No. 115.

In general, the Board declared that it will assert jurisdiction over any enterprise which produces or handles goods destined for out-ofState shipment, or which performs services outside the State in which the firm is located, if the goods or services reach a value of $25,000 a year. It will assert jurisdiction also over firms receiving directly from out-of-State material valued at $500,000 a year; or indirectly, $1,000,000 a year. Jurisdiction will be asserted also over a firm whose dollar volume of business in any of the three categories above or category (4) below does not meet the minimum amounts required in these categories, provided that its volume in each of two or more categories makes a large enough percentage of the minimum amount required in the category so that the percentages added together equal 100 or more. Thus, the Board asserted jurisdiction over a company whose sales directly in commerce amounted to 90 percent of the $25,000 requirement and its purchases in commerce amounted to 15 percent of the minimum direct inflow requirement, because "the total of the two percentages is thus in excess of '100 percent.'" 12 Of this firm, the Board said in a unanimous opinion: "Interference by a labor dispute with this Employer's interstate business would, in our opinion, exert an impact upon commerce as great as would be exerted in the case of companies having interstate shipments of the value of either of the minimum yardstick figures. In addition, the Board declared it would continue to assert jurisdiction over the following special categories of business: (1) Instrumentalities and channels of interstate commerce, such as banks,13 radio stations," or taxicab companies serving interstate bus and railway terminals; 15 (2) public utility and transit systems; (3) establishments which operate as integral parts of a multistate enterprise, such as chain stores or franchised dealers in new automobiles and trucks; 16 (4) enterprises which furnish goods or services valued at $50,000 a year to concerns in categories (1) or (2) or concerns doing a $25,000 out-of-State business; and (5) establishments whose operations substantially affect national defense.

2. Activities of Office of General Counsel

The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has the sole and independent responsibility for investigating charges of unfair labor practices, issuing complaints in cases where his investigators find evidence of violation, and prosecuting the cases upon the complaints before the Board Members. Also, under an arrangement between the

12 Rutledge Paper Products, Inc., supra.

13 Amalgamated Bank of New York, 92 NLRB No. 100.

14 WBSR, Inc., supra.

1 Red Cab, Inc., 92 NLRB No. 18.

16 Baxter Bros., 91 NLRB No. 233.

five-member Board and the General Counsel," the field staff under the latter's supervision has the task of acting as agents of the Board in the preliminary investigation of representation and union-shop cases. In this capacity, the field staff in the regional offices has authority to effect settlements or adjustments in such cases and to conduct hearings on the issues involved. The five-member Board, however, makes decisions in all contested representation and union-shop cases.

Dismissals by regional directors of charges in unfair labor practice cases may be appealed to the General Counsel; their dismissals in representation and union-shop cases may be appealed to the Board Members.

a. Representation and Union-Shop Cases

The General Counsel's field staff closed 6,906 representation cases during the 1950 fiscal year, most of them pursuant to agreement by all parties. This was approximately 78 percent of the 8,761 cases closed by the agency. The remainder of the representation cases was closed by action of the Board Members.

The field staff conducted hearings in a total of 2,258 representation cases. This was an increase of 24 percent over the 1,821 cases in which hearings were conducted during the 1949 fiscal year.

A total of 11,322 elections of all types was conducted among employees during the 1950 fiscal year. Of these, 9,302, or 82.2 percent, were conducted on the basis of agreement of the parties. A total of 5,731 representation elections, to determine the employees' choice of bargaining representatives, was held. The parties agreed to the holding of 4,156 of these elections, or approximately 72.5 percent. Unionshop authorization polls numbered 5,591, of which 5,146, or 92 percent, were held pursuant to agreement of the parties.

Representation petitions were dismissed by regional directors in 478 cases, and they were withdrawn by the parties before Board decision in 2,185 cases.

b. Unfair Labor Practice Cases

In the capacity of prosecutor of unfair labor practices, the General Counsel's staff closed 5,098 unfair practice cases of all types without the necessity of formal action. This was 90.8 percent of the 5,615 unfair practice cases closed by the agency during the 1950 fiscal year. Of the cases closed without formal action, 2,637 were withdrawn by the charging party; and 1,324 were adjusted. Regional directors dismissed 1,137, or approximately 20 percent. About the same percentage of dismissals prevailed in both charges against employers and charges against unions.

17 See amended Board Memorandum Describing the Authority and Assigned Responsibilities of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (effective October 10, 1950), 15 Fed. Reg. 6924 (published October 14, 1950).