The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1948-01-30
Powers OF NLRB
Counsel Tops
Labor Officials
By MAX HALL


Washington-The general coun-
sci of the National Labor Rela-
tons Board (NLRB), Robert N.
Denham, probably has more au-
thority than any other labor of
fetal in the government.
But you'll never know it from
his title.
The title suggests he is a legal
adviser to the five-man NLRB.
He's not that at all. He is indie
pendent of the board. He's more
like an administrator" or chief
prosecutor" He has eight times
as many people working under
him as the board has.
These points are important in
following the growing number of
cases in which unions and en-
ployers are being charged. with
unfair labor practices under the
Taft-Hartley Act.
The term board" for NLRB,
can have different meanings. In
the Taft-H Hartley Act itself,
board" is used three ways:
/. Sometimes it means the five
men who decide cases chairman
Paul M. Herzog, John M. Hous-
ton, James j. Reynolds, Jr., Abe
Murdoch and j. Copeland Cray.
2. Sometimes it means the gen.
eral counsel (Denham), who in
v~estigates and prosecutes cases.
3. Sometimes it means the whole
outfit, considered as a federal
agency 1926 employees).
Now the NLRB in the third
sense-that of one agency-occu-
pies a tricky old seven-story
spsrtment hotel, the Rocham-
beau, which abounds with full
length mirrors, doorbells, bath
rooms and doors that lead through
tiny passageways and right out
into the corridor again.
The agency has 382 employees
at the Rochambeau and 444 field
employees in 80 other cities.
When you get into actual cases,
it is misleading to refer to the
NLRB as though it were one
agency, because the Taft-Hartley
Act had the practical effect of
splitting it into two agencies
the five-man board and the office
of the general counsel.
The five-man board and the
members stats comprise 81 per-
sons. Denham's office has I'll,
including all 444 field employees.
To make it more complicated,
yet a third group has its home at
the Rochambeau, composed of %
hearing examiners" and their
three employees. The examiners
have the role of independent
judges.
One of the two main duties of
the five-man board is to decide
what union, if any, shall repre-
sent certain groups of American
workers. It does this with the
help of Denham's field personnel.
The other main duty relates
to unfair labor practices. Now
here is the way the three Rocham-
beau groups fit into the picture.
Suppose a union or an employer
files an unfair practice charge.
The Denham office investigates.
The Denham office has the sole
power to decide whether to is
sue a complaint and call a hear
ing.
If it issues a complaint, it also
has the power-and sometimes
the duty-to ask for a court order
temporarily hating the alleged
unfair practice pending a decis-
ion.
The five-man NLRB can't issue
such complaints and can't ask for
such court orders.
An examiner journeys from
Washington to preside over the
hearing. The hearing is like a
court trial, with a representative
of Denham acting as prosecutor,
and the party who filed the orin-
inal charge helping him.
The examiner makes a prelin-
mary verdict. If any party OBJ
jects to it-and usually someone
does-the case moves to Wash
ington for the five-man board to
decide.
If the boards verdict is guilty"
it orders the unfair practice stop
ped. If necessary it al ask a
federal court to enforce the or
der.