Labor - Management Relations 341
of such unions. The NLRA established the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) as the administrative agency responsible for enforcing
the provisions of the act.
In 1947, Congress amended the NLRA with passage of the Labor -
Management Relations Act (LMRA), which articulated union unfair labor
practices. In 1959, Congress passed the Labor - Management Reporting
and Disclosure Act, which established a bill of rights for union members,
specifying internal union election procedures and fi nancial reporting
disclosure requirements for unions and union offi cers. It also added restric-
tions on picketing, prohibiting “ hot cargo ” clauses, and closed certain
loopholes in the LMRA. ( Hot cargo agreements are contract provisions in which
the employer promises not to handle products that the union fi nds objec-
tionable, because they have been produced by nonunion labor or at a plant
on strike.) These three acts have been consolidated and are now referred
to as the Labor - Management Relations Act, 1947, as amended. Federal
and state governments are excluded from coverage by the act. Nonprofi ts
became covered in the 1970s.
The NLRB can direct elections and certify results only in the case
of employers whose operations affect commerce. The LMRA applies
to any employer or unfair labor practice affecting commerce. There-
fore, the statute has a broad scope, covering most employers (Feldacker,
1990).
Because the courts have broadly interpreted “ affect commerce, ”
the NLRB could theoretically exercise its powers to enforce the act for
all employers whose operations affect commerce. However, the board
has chosen not to act in all cases. In 1950, it decided to distinguish
between businesses that interrupt the flow of interstate commerce and
those that are so small that a dispute would probably have no impact
on the flow of commerce. It set monetary cutoff points, or standards,
that limit the exercise of its power to cases involving employers whose
effect on commerce is substantial. The board ’ s requirements for exer-
cising its power or jurisdiction are called jurisdictional standards or juris-
dictional yardsticks. These standards are based on the yearly amount
of business done by the employer or the yearly amount of its sales or
purchases. The standards are stated in terms of total volume of busi-
ness and are different for different kinds of enterprises (Commerce
Clearing House, 1990; Feldacker, 1990; National Labor Relations
Board, 1991). Exhibit 12.1 presents the board ’ s current jurisdictional
standards.