Statement Accompanying Executive Order 6763

The Executive Order that I have just issued carries out the mandate of Congress, as expressed in Public Resolution No. 44, 73d Congress, approved June 19, 1934. It establishes upon a firm statutory basis the additional machinery by which the United States Government will deal with labor relations, and particularly with difficulties arising in connection with collective bargaining, labor elections and labor representation.

For many weeks, but particularly during the last ten days, officials of the Department of Labor, the National Recovery Administration and the National Labor Board have been in conference with me and with each other on this subject. It has been our common objective to find an agency or agencies suitable for the disposition of these difficult problems, and after making such selection to make clear to the public how this machinery works and how it can be utilized in the interest of maintaining orderly industrial relations and justice as between employers, employees and the general public, and enforcing the statutes and other provisions of law that relate to collective bargaining and similar labor relations.

The Executive Order creates in connection with the Department of Labor, but not subject to the judicial supervision of the Secretary of Labor, a National Labor Relations Board composed of three impartial persons, each of whom will receive a salary of $10,000 a year. This Board is given the power to make investigations, to hold labor elections, to hear cases of discharge of employees and to act as voluntary arbitrator. In addition, the Board is authorized to recommend to the President that in such cases as they deem it desirable, existing labor boards such as the industrial boards already created in the cotton textile industry or the petroleum industry, and such as the various Regional Labor Boards, should be reestablished under the authority of the Joint Resolution just passed by Congress and approved by me on June 19, 1934; and also to recommend that additional boards of a similar character should be newly created. Whenever any regional, industrial or special board is established or created under the authority of the Joint Resolution it will report for administrative purposes to the National Labor Relations Board, but the decisions of the regional, industrial or special boards will be subject to review by the National Board only where it is clear that such review will serve the public interest. Furthermore, the Board can utilize and refer cases to suitable State or local tribunals.

The existing National Labor Board is by this Executive Order abolished, effective July 9, 1934, but the new National Labor Relations Board will have the benefit of the expert personnel of the old Board and of such of the subordinate regional labor boards as it may deem necessary. The new Board will have the advantages of the experience of the old Board. . . .

One of the most important features of the new arrangement is that the National Labor Relations Board and all subordinate boards will make regular reports through the Secretary of Labor to the President. . . . Reports furnished regularly in this manner will be invaluable in the event that any permanent legislation is later contemplated and in developing a systematic knowledge of the general character of the labor relations problems in the United States of America, which must be justly and expeditiously handled.

The very presence of this Board and any boards it may authorize will have undoubtedly a salutary effect in making it possible for individual conciliators to arrive at settlements of local grievances promptly. Indeed it is my hope that so far as possible adjustment in labor relations and the correction of labor abuses can be effectively made at the source of the dispute without bringing the parties before national authorities located in Washington. . . .

This Executive Order, I believe, marks a great step forward in administrative efficiency and, more important, in governmental policy in labor matters. It meets the universal demand not only of employers and employees, but of the public, that the machinery for adjusting labor relations should be clarified so that every person may know where to turn for the adjustment of grievances.