The National Labor Relations Board

To administer and enforce the Wagner Act a five member National Labor Relations Board NLRB was established. The NLRB is an independent agency of the federal government. Its members serve for 5 year terms and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The NLRB’s basic responsibility is to investigate and rule on charges of unfair labor practices that are brought before it and to conduct representation elections. Much of the actual casework is handled by staff persons of the NLRB at 51 regional, subregional and resident offices. The law gives the NLRB the power to impose financial penalties and to issue cease and desist orders to end unfair labor practices. The caseload of the board grew tremendously between 1970 and 1980 as the annual number of unfair labor practice charges filed more than doubled. Since we are faced with an economy that is on a downward spiral maybe the NLRB will have a tremendous caseload now. However the caseload has declined since then with the sharp drop in union membership and organizing activity.

NLRB’s narrow constructed mandate should be expanded to include religious workplace issues that are on the rise when employers do not have a good valid job related reason for religious discrimination. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC has lagged, one wonders why.