National Labor Relations Board Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year 2010

摘要

This is the NLRB Fiscal Year 2010 Performance and Accountability Report. This annual report provides insight into the workings of the NLRB, an independent federal agency established in 1935 to promote workplace democracy. It has been an eventful 12 months for the agency. We began the year with only two Members, Member Peter Schaumber and Wilma B. Liebman. continuing a situation that had persisted since January 2008. The era of the two-member Board, during which it issued nearly 600 decisions, drew to a close on March 27, when President Obama recess-appointed two new Members, Craig Becker and Mark Gaston Pearce. In late June, an additional Member, Brian Hayes, was confirmed by the Senate, along with Member Pearce, bringing the Board to its full five-member strength for the first time in two and a half years. In August, the term of Member Schaumber expired, leaving the Board at four Members. In June, a divided Supreme Court ruled that the two-member Board did not have the authority to issue decisions. As a result, about 96 cases that were pending on appeal in the federal courts were returned to the Board for new decisions. Despite the challenges presented by turnover and the returned cases, the Board had a productive year, issuing 315 decisions in contested cases through FY 2010, up from 256 the previous year. These decisions resolved some of the Agency's oldest pending cases and tackled some of the difficult issues that had deadlocked the Board as it awaited new members. Notwithstanding the Board's high productivity, the inventory of pending cases rose over the year, from 193 at the beginning of FY 2010 to 264 at the end of it. Among the remaining pending cases are issues related to the immigration status of workers who were victims of unfair labor practices, union access to employer property, and statutory coverage. Through the year, the Agency celebrated its 75th anniversary with a series of events that culminated with a two-day symposium at George Washington university Law School at the end of October on the legacy and future of the National Labor Relations Act. The symposium featured some of the nation's top scholars in labor law, economics and history.