The Union Times

N.L.R.B. Policy Invites Raids, Unions Assert

WASHINGTON - (FP) - Opening the door wide to inter-union raids, the NLRB this week barred from its ballot a union recognized under contract for three years and allowed an intervening union to stand alone in a collective bargaining election.

The NLRB explained it acted because the present contract holding union, Local 65 of the United Wholesale Retail & Warehouse Workers had not complied with the Taft-Hartley act's non-communist affidavit requirement.

Instead, the NLRB held, the Intl Assn. of Machinists will appear on the ballot alone in an election among employees of the Sigmund Cohn Manufacturing Co. in New York City. The concern manufactures and sells precious and base metals.

Breaking out in a rash of decisions, the NLRB covered most of the field as to intervening unions to about sew up its policy under the new law. On Nov. 4 the NLRB ruled that non-complying unions may not obtain its services in petitioning for collective bargaining elections. This was made clear in decisions covering the United Steelworkers and the United Construction Workers, affiliate of the United Mine Workers (AFL).

An NLRB spokesman declared that there were two fields in which the board has not yet decided its position:

1. In situations wherein the employer petitions for an election and the union or unions in his plant have not complied.

2. In the case of decertification proceedings whereby 30% or more of the employees want an election to show that a certified union no longer represents a majority and the union has not complied.