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133130

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON LABOR

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H. R. 6288

MARCH 13, 14, 19, 20, 28, AND APRIL 3 AND 4, 1935

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1935

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LABOR DISPUTES ACT

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1935

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON LABOR,
Washington, D. C.

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.

ance,

The bill that is before us this morning that these hearings are being held on I, R. 6288, the Connery bill in the House, which is exactly si oneerce, he bill which Senator Wagner previously introduced inate, pro affect ce,

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ation is as follows:)

6288, 74th Cong., 1st sess.]

Gromote equality" 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

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

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.

(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.

(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.

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(7) The term "affecting commerce" means in commer. or burdening or affecting commerce, or abstructing the free flow of comm, Ka or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute that might burden or, Kansazommerce or obstruct the free flow of commerce. O, New York

(8) The term "unfair labor practice" means any unfair in section 8.

'e listed terms,

(9) The term "labor dispute" includes any controversy con tenure or conditions of employment, or concerning the associatio 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

to time appropriated for by Congress. The Board may establish or utilize such regional, local, or other agencies, and utilize such voluntary and uncompensated services, as may from time to time be needed.

(b) Upon the appointment of the three original members of the Board and the designation of its chairman, the old Board shall cease to exist; and all pending investigations and proceedings of the old Board, and all proceedings in the courts pursuant to Public Resolution Numbered 44, approved June 19, 1934 (48 Stat. 1183), to which the old Board is a party, shall be continued by the Board in its discretion. All orders made by the old Board pursuant to said Public Resolution Numbered 44 shall continue in effect unless modified, superseded, or revoked by the Board after due notice and hearing. All employees of the old Board shall be transferred to and become employees of the Board at their present grades and salaries, without acquiring by such transfer a permanent or civil-service status. All records, papers, and proporty of the old Board shall become records, papers, and property of the Board, and all unexpended funds and appropriations for the use and maintenance of the old Board shall become funds and appropriations available to be expended by the Board in the exercise of the powers, authority, and duties conferred on it by this Act.

(c) All the expenses of the Board, including all necessary traveling and subsistence expenses outside the District of Columbia incurred by the members or employees of the Board under its orders, shall be allowed and paid on the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor approved by the Board or by any individual it designates for that purpose.

SEC. 5. The principal office of the Board shall be in the District of Columbia, but it may meet and exercise any or all of its powers at any other place. The Board may, by one or more of its members or by such agents or agencies as it may designate, prosecute any inquiry necessary to its functions in any part of the United States. A member who participates in such an inquiry shall not be disqualified from subsequently participating in a decision of the Board in the

same case.

SEC. 6. (a) The Board shall have authority from time to time to make, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. Such rules and regulations shall be effective upon publication in the manner which the Board shall prescribe.

(b) The Board shall have authority and is directed to study the activities of such boards and agencies as have been or may be hereafter established by agreement, code, or law to deal with labor disputes, and to receive from such boards reports of their activities.

RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES

SEC. 7. Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.

SEC. 8. It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer

(1) To interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7.

(2) To dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it: Provided, That subject to rules and regulations made and published by the Board pursuant to section 6 (a), an employer shall not be prohibited from permitting employees to confer with him during working hours without loss of time or pay.

(3) By discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization: Provided, That nothing in this Act, or in the National Industrial Recovery Act (U. S. C., title 15, secs. 701-712), as amended from time to time, or in any code or agreement approved or prescribed thereunder, or in any other statute of the United States, shall preclude an employer from making an agreement with a labor organization (not established, maintained, or assisted by any action defined in this Act as an unfair labor practice) to require as a condition of employment membership therein, if such labor organization is the representative of the majority of the employees in the appropriate collective bargaining unit covered by such agreement when made.

(4) To discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under this Act.

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