The three industries having a larger percentage of valid votes than workers were industries in which the year marked especially active organization efforts or the culmination of long efforts to organize and secure recognition by large corporations. On the other hand, where the percent of valid votes was markedly below the percent of workers, the difference is usually explainable either by the extent to which the industry is already organized or by the fact that organization efforts were not particularly active in little organized industries.

Unions Involved

The A. F. of L. and C. I. O. participated in approximately equal numbers of elections and pay-roll checks: 2,270 for A. F. of L. affiliates, 2,284 for C. I. O. affiliates. In elections in which the C. I. O. participated, 999,922 workers were eligible to vote; in elections in which the A. F. of L. participated there were 490,028 eligible voters. Unaffiliated unions participated in 678 elections involving a total of 338,195 eligible voters.

The election and pay-roll proceedings of the year included 1,905 elections and cross checks conducted on petitions filed by affiliates of the A. F. of L., 2,070 deriving from C. I. O. petitions, 375 on petitions filed by unaffiliated unions, and 40 growing out of employer petitions. These numbers correspond proportionately to the number of representation cases filed by each group during the year.

Affiliates of the A. F. of L. appeared on the ballot as intervenor more frequently than any other group of unions. A. F. of L. unions intervened in 482 elections, contrasted with 366 elections in which unaffiliated unions intervened and 334 elections in which C. I. O. unions intervened.

In approximately 75 percent of the elections, there was no contest between unions, i. e., only one union appeared on the ballot. Here the worker's choice was simply for or against the petitioning union. Affiliates of the A. F. of L. appeared alone on the ballot in 36 percent of the 4,212 elections conducted during the year, C. I. O. affiliates in 35 percent of the elections. The A. F. of L. elections represented 16 percent of all valid votes cast, the C. I. O. elections 42 percent. Unaffiliated unions appeared alone in only 5 percent of the elections involving an even smaller percentage of valid votes. A negligible number of elections involved more than two participants.

The composition of Board-ordered elections in terms of participating unions differs markedly from other types of elections. The difference

7 The sum of the petitions for each group does not equal the number of elections since one election may be held to resolve a representation question arising in two or more petitions.

Unions involved in employer petitions are excluded from this discussion.

lies in the relatively small number of ordered elections having a single participant. Thus, A. F. of L. unions participated alone in 28.7 percent of all ordered elections, contrasted with 38.5 percent for consent and stipulated elections; C. I. O. unions participated alone in 22.9 percent of ordered elections, compared with 38.4 for other elections. On the other hand, approximately 25 percent of the ordered elections involved opposing C. I. O. and A. F. of L. unions, compared with a corresponding figure of only 9 percent for other elections. A. F. of L. or C. I. O. affiliates, either alone or as separate parties on the ballot, opposed unaffiliated unions in 17.4 percent of the ordered elections, contrasted with 9 percent for other elections.

ELECTION RESULTS.

Unions affiliated with the C. I. O. won 75 percent of all elections in which they participated, compared with 67 percent for A. F. of L. affiliates and 57.7 percent for unaffiliated unions. C. I. O. affiliates received 68 percent of 824,442 votes, or 560,815 votes; A. F. of L. affiliates received 50.9 percent of 406,034 votes, or 206,605 votes; and unaffiliated unions received the smallest number and percentage of valid votes, 45.1 percent of 283,702 votes, or 127,834 votes.

Table 9.-Results of elections and pay-roll checks conducted during 1942, by participating union

In the elections in which only one union appeared on the ballot, the petitioning union consistently won a vast majority of its elections and polled a majority of valid votes. A. F. of L. affiliates won 80 percent of their elections, polling 71 percent of the total number of valid votes; C. I. O. affiliates won 87 percent of their elections and polled 80 percent of valid votes; unaffiliated unions, which participated in relatively few elections, won 92 percent and polled 89 percent of votes.

In those elections in which affiliates of the A. F. of L. and C. I. O. were opposed, A. F. of L. affiliates won 36 percent of elections and See tables 16, 17, and 18 in Appendix, pp. 88-90, for detailed data.

polled 35 percent of votes; C. I. O. affiliates won 57 percent of elections, polling 54 percent of votes. A. F. of L. affiliates opposing unaffiliated unions on a ballot won 50 percent of the elections and polled 48 percent of the valid votes. C. I. O. affiliates opposing independents won a slightly larger percentage of elections and polled a larger proportion of valid votes.

The success of the 3 different union groups as petitioner is indicated as follows: C. I. O. affiliates won 79 percent of the elections in which they were petitioner, unaffiliated unions 77 percent, and A. F. of L. affiliates 74 percent. In terms of the proportions of valid votes cast for the petitioning unions, the results are of different magnitude. C. I. O. unions polled 69 percent of the 823,206 votes cast in the elections in which they appeared as petitioner; unaffiliated unions polled 59 percent of the relatively small number of votes cast in elections for which they petitioned; A. F. of L. affiliates petitioning polled 58 percent of 297,197 votes.

In those elections in which the petitioning union was opposed by one other union on the ballot, the C. I. O. unions won the largest proportion of the elections and polled the largest percentage of valid votes as petitioner. The exact proportions for each union group are indicated below:

Table 10.-Success of petitioning unions in elections with two parties on the ballot 1

1 See table 17 in Appendix, p. 89, for fully detailed results.

A study of election results from industry to industry reveals that in 23 industries, primarily manufacturing, C. I. O. affiliates won a larger number of elections than did A. F. of L. affiliates, contrasted with 16 industries in which A. F. of L. affiliates won the larger number of elections. The 23 industries indicated for the C. I. O. accounted for 2,655 elections and 827,876 valid votes, compared with 1,541 elections and 238,459 valid votes in the industries indicated for the A. F. of L.10 Unaffiliated unions did not win a preponderance of elections in any industry, although they won relatively large percentages of elections

10 See table 18 in Appendix, p. 90.

in petroleum production, crude petroleum, finance, miscellaneous transportation, printing, public utilities, highway passenger transportation, water transportation, miscellaneous transportation equipment, aircraft, and service trades.

In only 14 percent of all elections did workers vote in a majority against the union or unions on the ballot. The figures for specific industries indicate little variation in this respect. In only 3 industries did more than 20 percent of the elections result in no union winner: wholesale trade (22 percent of 231 elections), retail trade (22 percent of 95 elections), and highway freight transportation (21 percent of 38 elections).

VI

THE MEANING OF THE ACT IN PRACTICE: UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES

THE National Labor Relations Act1 declares it to be the policy of

the United States to eliminate the causes of certain obstructions to the free flow of commerce, by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection. Section 7 of the Act provides that 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.

Five types of unfair labor practices by employers, defined in Section 8, are prohibited. To interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7, is the first. To dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization, or to contribute financial or other support to it, is the second. By discrimination to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization is similarly outlawed, except that closed-shop contracts, made with the representative of the employees in an appropriate collective bargaining unit, are not thereby forbidden. Discrimination against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under the Act is a fourth unfair labor practice. Finally it is forbidden to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit.

During its 7 years of work, the Board through its decisions has been interpreting the meaning of these rights of self-organization and collective bargaining, and of unfair labor practices, in the diverse multitude of labor-employer relationships. It has thus developed a body of major principles, firmly established in its practice, which are a guide

1 See p. 154 for text of Act.