NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD

ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES
Activity: MEDIATION

The Railway Labor Act is the oldest of the major federal labor relations statutes in use today. Primarily drafted by representatives of the railroad industry and the railroad brotherhoods, it reflects some 70 years of experience under a number of earlier statutes - all of which had been designed to encourage the settlement of labor management disputes in the railroad industry without resort to self help. The Act's major theoretical contribution was the recognition that the government had an interest and a role to play in the labor relations of this vital industry, but could do so without undermining the principle of free and untrammeled collective bargaining. Congress reaffirmed the wisdom of this approach in 1936 when the Act was amended to bring under its provisions the then fledging airline industry.

The National Mediation Board performs two distinct functions under the Act. First, the Board mediates disputes over wages, hours and working conditions which arise from time to time between the employees and the carriers. No change in rates of pay, rules and working conditions may be implemented unless preceded by 30 days written notice to the other party. During the 30 day period, the parties must conduct negotiations over the proposed change. At any time during this initial negotiation stage, either party may request the services of the Mediation Board or the Board may, of its own volition enter the negotiations. In either case, once the Board's services have been invoked, the status quo must be maintained, and resort to self help is barred.

Once commenced, negotiations continue until settlement or until the Board, in its sole discretion determines that its best efforts to mediate the dispute have been unsuccessful. Upon such a determination, the Board must seek to induce the parties to arbitrate the dispute. If either party refuses the offer of arbitration, the Board notifies both parties in writing that its mediation efforts have failed. This letter triggers a 30 day cooling off period, at the end of which the parties are, in most cases free to resort to self help.

However, if the dispute threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree which would deprive any section of the country of substantial transportation service, the Board may notify the President, who may, in his discretion, create an Emergency Board to investigate the dispute and issue a report. This report becomes the basis for a final round of bargaining. The status quo must be maintained for 30 days following the submission of the Emergency Board's report to the President, after which resort to self help is permitted.

The Board's second major function is to resolve representa. tion disputes arising among the various crafts of railroad and airline employees. When an organization seeks to represent a group of employees, it submits authorization cards to the Board and asks to be certified as the collective bargaining representative of those employees. The Board, thereafter, investigates the accuracy of the showing of interest and may certify the representative on that basis. However, if a dispute arises as to which of two or more competing organizations is the bona fide representative of the employees, the Board conducts an election to determine the employee representative favored by the majority of the employees.

In some instances, opposing organizations and carriers may take differing views as to the scope of the unit of employees to be recognized for bargaining purposes. In such a case, the Board conducts the hearing and issues a determination as to the appropriate class or craft for bargaining purposes.

In addition, the Board appoints referees to sit on the various divisions of the National Railroad Adjustment Board in deadlock cases, and when requested to do so, appoints neutral arbitrators to sit on arbitration boards set up under the Act. The Board also appoints neutrals to work with Boards of Adjustment on the rail carriers and the System Boards of Adjustment on the airlines.

The National Mediation Board is composed of three members who are Presidential appointees, as well as a professional staff of forty-three (43) Civil Service employees.

At the present time, over one million rail and airline employees are covered by the provisions of the Railway Labor Act and subject to the jurisdiction of the Mediation Board.

Moratorium provisions of the national railroad agreements have expired and a new round of negotiations with the nation's railroads is imminent.

Notwithstanding a degree of stability achieved in collective bargaining in the railroad industry in recent years through the consummation of national collective bargaining agreements containing common expiration dates and the reduced duplication of disputes confronting the Board as a result of the merger several years ago of the Order of Railway Conductors, Switchmen's Union of North America, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the number of new cases docketed by the Board during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, was higher than any year since 1966.

Based on our analysis of the situation, we expect that in addition to the negotiations on a national level, a substantial

number of negotiations will continue at the local level on various issues in the railroad industry. Consequently, we anticipate a continuation of the present mediation caseload at or above the existing level during the next fiscal year.

In the airline industry the Mediation Board anticipates an increasing number of disputes subject to the mediation processes of the Act. Due to the recent trend to relatively shortterm agreements, a substantial number of these agreements will be open for re-negotiation in fiscal year 1976 which will place a substantial strain on the Board's resources.

The increase in representation disputes in the airline industry is expected to continue. This trend arises out of several factors such as competition among the labor organizations presently representing airline employees, the continuous efforts of various labor organizations to organize unrepresented employees of the trunk airlines as well as the third level carriers (commuter service companies).

The recent years have seen greater utilization of the arbitration procedures of the Act by the parties as well as additional arbitration cases arising under protective conditions contained in merger and consolidation agreements approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board. This trend is also expected to continue,

Composite Case Report

The following table provides the actual composite caseload figures for 1973 and 1974, as well as estimated figures for 1975 and 1976, based upon experience during the past four years. This table is divided to show cases pending at the start of each year, cases docketed, cases closed and cases on hand at the end of each fiscal year. The estimated workload for 1976 reflects analysis of cases received during the past three years.

/1 Includes cases closed pursuant to moratorium provisions contained in national agreements.

Analysis of Travel, 1974

The operations of the National Mediation Board are directed from Washington, DC. No field offices are maintained. Field mediators, located at strategic duty stations, travel throughout the country depending on the need of the Board.

The inservice training has proven successful, and the Board proposes to continue this program. We hope to consolidate plans for a seminar for the field staff which has been of considerable benefit in the past.

Summary

The amount requested for this activity is $1,463,000, an increase of $83,000 over the past year's estimate.

The major portion of this increase, $61,000, is required for personnel compensation and accompanying personnel benefits. This includes the cost of within grade promotions, the additional cost of pay increase for Federal Civilian employees (E.C. 11811) as well as the additional cost of health insurance benefits.

The cost for space and related services provided by the General Services Administration as required by PL 92-313 for the fiscal year 1976 will be $61,273. This is an increase of $17,000.

The balance of the increase is $5,000, and is requested to offset increased cost in travel.