TABLE Page 9. Disposition of Union-Shop Authorization Cases Closed, by Stage 166 10. Remedial Action Taken in Unfair Labor Practice Cases by Identi- 166 A. Cases Filed Under Section 8 of NLRA.. 166 B. Cases Filed Under Section 8 (a) of L. M. R. A.. 166 11. Remedial Action Taken in Cases Involving Section 8 (b). 167 12. Formal Action Taken............. 168 13. Types of Elections Conducted____ 169 14. Number of Collective Bargaining Elections and Number of Votes Cast for Participating Unions__ 170 15. Number of Decertification Elections and Number of Votes Cast for Participating Unions__- 171 16. Number of Union Authorization Elections and Number of Votes Cast for Participating Unions. 172 17. Industrial Distribution of Collective Bargaining Elections, Winner, Eligible Voters, and Valid Votes Cast.. 173 18. Industrial Distribution of Decertification Elections, Winner, Eligible Voters, and Valid Votes Cast... 175 19. Industrial Distribution of Union-Shop Authorization Elections, 177 20. Geographic Distribution of Collective Bargaining Elections, Eligible Voters, and Number of Votes Cast for Participating Unions_ 21. Geographic Distribution of Decertification Elections, Eligible Voters, and Number of Votes Cast for Participating Unions___ 22. Geographic Distribution of Union-Shop Authorization Elections, Outcome, Eligible Voters, and Valid Votes Cast.. 179 181 183 23. Size of Establishment in Union-Shop Authorization Elections Conducted.__. 185 24. Record of Actions on Injunctions Petitioned for Under Section 10 (j) and 10 (1) During the Fiscal Year 1948... 24A. Record of Injunctions Petitioned for Under Section 10 (j) and 10 (1) During the Fiscal Year 1949. 1. Comparison of Cases Filed in Fiscal 1948 and 1949, by Type of Case. 3. Total Number of Cases Received and Disposed of by the Board 4. Total Number of Unfair Practice and Representation Cases Filed, 5. Collective Bargaining Elections Held During the Fiscal Year 1949- L. M. R. A.: Second Year THE Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, had been in effect 22 months when the National Labor Relations Board closed the fiscal year ending June 30, 1949. However, due to the reorganization of the agency made necessary by the new law, and because of the time required by labor organizations to comply with the filing requirements of the statute, no significant amount of actual case activity took place during the early months of the first fiscal year. Thus, while fiscal 1949 was the second year in which the Board had been engaged in administering the amended act, it was the first full fiscal year of operation under the new law. This first full fiscal year proved to be the busiest in the 14-year history of the agency. While there were fluctuations in certain phases of the Board's activities, the agency processed the greatest number of cases in its history. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1949, the agency closed a total of 32,796 cases of all types. This compares with 14,456 cases of all types closed in fiscal 1947, the Board's last and busiest year under the National Labor Relations Act before amendment. Of the cases closed in 1949, a total of 4,664 were unfair practice cases, 9,245 were representation cases and 18,887 were union-shop authorization cases. The agency succeeded during the 1949 fiscal year in reducing its backlog of cases awaiting action by more than half. It ended the 1949 fiscal year with 5,722 cases of all types on its docket, a reduction of approximately 55 percent from the 12,644 cases on docket July 1, 1948, most of which were union-shop authorization cases. 1 The five-member Board, the decision-making body of the agency, issued formal decisions in a total of 3,365 cases during the 1949 fiscal year. This was an increase of 64 percent over the 2,054 cases decided the previous fiscal year. Of these, 484 were unfair labor practice cases; 2,498 representation cases; and 383 union-shop cases. The Office of the General Counsel, which is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practice cases, issued formal 1 The reorganization of the Board under the Labor Management Relations Act is discussed in the Thir teenth Annual Report, pages 1 to 11. complaints in 617 such cases. This was more than double the 305 cases in which complaints were issued during fiscal 1948. The General Counsel's field staff conducted a total of 20,720 elections of all types, in which a total of 2,341,456 employees were eligible to vote. This compares with 21,277 elections, with 2,245,734 eligible to vote, that were conducted during fiscal 1948. The Division of Trial Examiners, which conducts hearings in unfair labor practice cases, held hearings in 414 such cases during the 1949 fiscal year. This was an increase of 132 percent over the 178 unfair practice cases in which hearings were conducted during the 1948 fiscal year. The trial examiners issued intermediate reports, setting forth their findings and recommendations, in 328 cases during fiscal 1949. This was an increase of approximately 154 percent over the 129 cases in which intermediate reports were issued during the 1948 fiscal year. 1. Changes in the Character of the Board's Case Load The reduction of the agency's backlog of pending cases resulted from two major factors. One was the speeding up and streamlining of Board procedures for the processing of cases, both in the field and with the Board in Washington. The other factor was a sharp decline in the filing of petitions for union-shop authorization polls. Such a poll-to determine whether the employees wish to authorize their union to negotiate a union-shop contract requiring all employees to join the union-is required before a union may legally make such a contract. Charges of unfair labor practices were filed in a total of 5,314 cases, the second largest number in Board history. The all-time peak is 6,807 filed in fiscal 1938. The 1949 filings, however, represent an increase of approximately 48 percent over the 3,598 filed in fiscal 1948 and an increase of more than 26 percent over the unfair practice cases filed in 1947, the last year of the Wagner Act. The representation cases of all types filed during the 1949 fiscal year numbered 8,370, an increase of approximately 19 percent over the 7,038 filed in fiscal 1948. While running well above the average of the Wagner Act years, this was considerably below the record of 10,677 such cases filed in fiscal 1947, the last year before amendment of the Act. 2. Types of Unfair Labor Practice Charges Of the 5,314 unfair practice cases filed during the 1949 fiscal year, 4,154, or approximately 78 percent, involved charges against employers. In the remaining 1,160 cases, charges of unfair practices were leveled against unions. The most common charge against employers was that of discriminating in employment on a basis of union membership or lack of it. This |