Seventy Third Annual Report of the National Labor Relations Board for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2008

摘要

The National Labor Relations Board, an independent Federal agency, initiates no cases: it acts only on those cases brought before it. All proceedings originate from filings by the major segment of the public covered by the National Labor Relations Actemployees, labor unions, and private employers who are engaged in interstate commerce. During fiscal year 2008, 25,890 cases were received by the Board. The public filed 22,497 charges alleging that employers or labor organizations committed unfair labor practices prohibited by the statute, adversely affecting employees. During this period, the NLRB also received 3,393 representation petitions, including 3,158 petitions to conduct secret-ballot elections in which workers in appropriate groups select or reject unions to represent them in collective bargaining with their employers as well as 91 petitions for elections in which workers voted on whether to rescind existing union-security agreements. The NLRB also received 14 petitions to amend the certification of existing collective-bargaining representatives and 130 petitions to clarify existing collective-bargaining units. After the initial influx of charges and petitions, the flow narrows because the great majority of the newly filed cases are resolved in NLRBs national network of field offices by dismissals, withdrawals, agreements, and settlements. During fiscal year 2008, the five-member Board was composed of Chairman Robert J. Battista and Members Wilma B. Liebman, Peter C. Schaumber, Peter N. Kirsanow, and Dennis P. Walsh. Chairman Battistas term expired on December 16, 2007. The recess appointments of Members Walsh and Kirsanow ended when Congress adjourned on December 31, 2007. President Bush designated Member Schaumber as Chairman on March 19, 2008. Ronald Meisburg served as General Counsel.