Labor Management Relations Act

“ Indeed, the problems of those in the supervisory categories of management did not seem to have been in the consciousness of Congress. Section 1 of the Act refers to 'wage rates', 'wage earners', 'workers'. There is no phrase in the entire Act which is descriptive of those doing supervisory work. Section 2 (3) exempts from laborer'. But if 'employee' includes a the term 'employee' any 'agricultural foreman, it would be most strange to find Congress exempting 'agricultural laborers', but not 'agricultural foremen'. ”

“ The struggle for control or power between management and labor becomes secondary to a growing unity in their common demands on ownership.
I do not believe this is an exaggerated statement of the basic policy questions which underly the present decision. For if foremen are 'employees' within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, so are vice-presidents, managers, assistant managers, superintendents, assistant superintendents-indeed, all who are on the payroll of the company, including the president ”

“ National labor policy has been built on the premise that by pooling their economic strength and acting through a labor organization freely chosen by the majority, the employees of an appropriate unit have the most effective means of bargaining for improvements in wages, hours, and working conditions. The policy therefore extinguishes the individual employee's power to order his own relations with his employer and creates a power vested in the chosen representative to act in the interests of all employees. ”

“ Only by changing the nature of Federal labor-management relations so that managers, employees, and employees’ elected union representatives serve as partners will it be possible to design and implement comprehensive changes necessary to reform Government. Labor-management partnerships will champion change in Federal Government agencies to transform them into organizations capable of delivering the highest quality services to the American people. ”

“ If a union or employer is to be permitted to take action which substantially though unintentionally-encourages or discourages union activity, the union or employer ends served by the action must not only be of some significance, but they must also be legitimate, or at least not otherwise forbidden by the National Labor Relations Act. ”

“ Again, an employer can properly make the existence or amount of a year-end bonus depend upon the productivity of a unit of the plant, although this will foreseeably tend to discourage the protected activity of strikng. Pitts-burgh-Des Moines Steel Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 9 Cir., 284 F.2d 74. A union, too, is privileged to make decisions which are reasonably calculated to further the welfare of all the employees it represents, nonunion as well as union, even though a foreseeable result of the decision may be to encourage union membership. ”

“ The Fair Labor Standards Act was not designed to codify or perpetuate those customs and contracts which allow an employer to claim all of an employee's time while compensating him for only a part of it. Congress intended, instead, to achieve a uniform national policy of guaranteeing compensation for all work or employment engaged in by employees covered by the Act. ”

“ The employers argue that their employees cannot make an informed choice because the card drive will be over before the employer has had a chance to present his side of the unionization issues. Normally, however, the union will inform the employer of its organization drive early in order to subject the employer to the unfair labor practice provisions of the Act; the union must be able to show the employer's awareness of the drive in order to prove that his contemporaneous conduct constituted unfair labor practices on which a bargaining order can be based if the drive is ultimately successful. ”

“ Labor unions do not have the same right to utilize the property of an employer not directly a part of the employment facilities, that an employer has. The Board cannot require that such meeting places be furnished for employees by an employer under the terms of the Act. To require the employer to allow labor union meetings in or on property entirely disconnected in space and use from the business of the employer and employees is too extravagant an extension of the meaning of the Act for me to believe it is within its language or the purpose of Congress. ”

“ We can be competitive and lean and mean and still create a situation where workers are thriving in this country.
So I'm going to be signing three executive orders designed to ensure that federal contracts serve taxpayers efficiently and effectively. One of these orders is going to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to reimburse federal contractors who spend money trying to influence the formation of unions. We will also require that federal contractors inform their employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. ”

“ The agreement provided that the company would recognize the shop committee as representing the employes for collective bargaining; that no employe should be discharged without a hearing before the shop committee and the management; that certain employes should be discharged and not rehired; that stipulated notice should be given of layoffs due to shortage of work; that new employes might join any labor organization they chose. It also covered wages and hours of work. ”