New and Novel Remedies for Unfair Labor Practices

My topic is the need for new and novel remedies for unfair labor practices. I do not mean to suggest that there is no such need, but I would, before going any further, like to put it into perspective. The case load of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) has been rising steadily, being over 30,000 cases per year at the present time, a development which should concern all of us. About 17,000 of these cases involve alleged unfair labor practices.

That number, in it- self, seems to suggest that the Board is not successfully accomplishing its purpose. But the number itself means very little. What the Board sees is in a sense the pathology of labor relations. There is a great deal of successful collective bargaining that, simply because it is so successful, does not reach us.

Many unions are voluntarily recognized without Board conducted elections. When elections are necessary four out of five are conducted on an amicable consent basis. Thousands of con- tracts are negotiated every year without Board intervention. I think it is fair to say that the body of law the Board has built up, by making clear to parties what the law requires, has helped to create the climate in which so much successful bargaining and labor relations can occur.