National War Labor Board (1942–1945)
U.S. World War II government agency / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The National War Labor Board, commonly the War Labor Board (NWLB or WLB), was an independent agency of the United States government, established January 12, 1942, by an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the purpose of which was to mediate labor disputes as part of the American home front during World War II.
Agency overview | |
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Formed | January 12, 1942 |
Preceding agency | |
Dissolved | December 31, 1945 |
Superseding agency | |
Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Employees | 2,613 (1945) |
Annual budget | $15,596,000 (FY 1945) |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | Office of Economic Stabilization (April 1943 on) |
The twelve-member board had a tripartite structure, with four members from each of industry, labor, and the public, with William Hammatt Davis as its chair. Acting as an arbitration tribunal, the board had the effect of replacing normal collective bargaining during the course of the war, as it could intervene in any labor dispute that it saw as endangering "the effective prosecution of the war" and put into place a settlement. It administered wage control in national industries such as automobiles, shipping, railways, airlines, telegraph lines, and mining.
The board was additionally divided into twelve Regional War Labor Boards which handled both labor dispute settlement and wage stabilization functions for specific geographic sections of the country. The board also had a number of commissions and panels set up to deal with certain specific industries.
Important decisions the board made included a "maintenance of membership" rule regarding union security; an inflation-based rule known as the "Little Steel formula" for putting an upper bound on wage increases; and rulings that required equal pay for equal work for women employees and disallowed pay differentials based on employees' race. As one assessment has written, the War Labor Board "held enormous power over American production and industry."[1]