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James C. Hill Arbitration Files

 Collection
Identifier: 5538

Scope and Contents

Organizational documents include minutes of the National, Regional and Reviews and Appeals Committee of the U.S. National War Labor Board; case reports of the U.S. National War Labor Board Reviews and Appeals Committee (ca. 1942-1945); conferences; reports and transcripts of executive sessions of the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board (1950-1952); miscellaneous procedural and policy manuals; memoranda; opinions of general counsels; summaries of the Board's decisions and actions; and bulletins and press releases of general wage stabilization regulations (1951), and of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1951-1955).

Readers' files consist of memoranda of the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board, Region 2, and letters of Board members (1951-1953). Materials cover disposition of dispute cases in the following industries: agriculture, coal, ore extraction, non-metallic, quarrystone, contracting, meat, dairy, grain, bakery and confectionery, beverages, tobacco, textiles, apparel, lumber, wood products, furniture, pulp and paper products, printing, publishing, chemicals, chemical products, plastics, drugs, petroleum, rubber, leather, stone, clay, glass, cement, metals, rolling and forging, machinery, engines and turbines, construction and handling, machine tools, office and computing machines, electric and electronic equipment, transportation equipment, vehicles, instruments, transportation, utilities, trade, finance, business, and recreational services. Disputed issues include wages, holiday, hours of work, shift differential, insurance, position classification, wage adjustment, wage bonus, profit sharing, sick leave, fringe benefits, disability insurance, overtime, transfer, pension, merit pay, back pay, military leave, funeral leave, meal allowance, and protective clothing.

General subject files include press releases and memoranda of the U.S. National War Labor Board, U.S. Wage Stabilization Board, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Files also include manuscript notes and miscellaneous printed materials pertaining to ability to pay, wages, appeals, wage bonus, Defense Production Act, dismissal, discrimination, discipline, fair labor standards, fringe benefits, grievance and arbitration procedure, health and welfare, holiday, job evaluation, position classification, jurisdictional dispute, productivity, wage-price policy, hours of work, shift differential, strikes, supervisors, wage adjustments, transfers, and disputes in aircraft, airframe, automobile, construction, copper, transportation, maritime, lumber, meat, petroleum, non-ferrous metals, steel, railroad, airline, rubber, shipbuilding and trucking industries (1942-1953).

Organizational documents include minutes of the National, Regional and Reviews and Appeals Committee of the U.S. National War Labor Board; case reports of the U.S. National War Labor Board Reviews and Appeals Committee (ca. 1942-1945); conferences; reports and transcripts of executive sessions of the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board (1950-1952); miscellaneous procedural and policy manuals; memoranda; opinions of general counsels; summaries of the Board's decisions and actions; and bulletins and press releases of general wage stabilization regulations (1951), and of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1951-1955).

Dates

  • 1941-1962

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

Arbitrator, mediator, employee and panel member of federal labor dispute and wage stabilization agencies.

The National War Labor Board, a tri-partite body established in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was charged with acting as an arbitration board in labor-management dispute cases, thereby preventing work stoppages which might hinder the war effort. It was also responsible for determining wage adjustments in accordance with anti-inflationary wage stabilization criteria and policies.

The Board was initially divided into twelve Regional Administrative Boards which handled both labor dispute settlement and wage stabilization functions for specific geographic regions. The National Board further decentralized in 1943, when it established special tri-partite commissions and panels to deal with particular industries on a national basis.

The Wage Stabilization Board was created as a constituent division of the Economic Stabilization Agency by Executive Order 10161 of September 9, 1950, under the authority of the Defense Production Act of 1950, to control wages and salaries during the Korean War emergency period. An executive order of April 21, 1951 reestablished the Board with power to assist the president in settling industrial disputes. In July of 1952, the Board was reconstituted under legislative authority but stripped of its function in the area of labor disputes. Wage controls were suspended in February of 1953 and the Board was terminated the following April. The Board, while it functioned, was a tripartite body representing labor, industry and the public. To expedite its activities, regional offices were established, including that in New York.

Extent

67 cubic feet

Abstract

Documents relating to the U.S. National War Labor Board and the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board, as well as general subject files.

Related Materials

Quantity:

67 linear ft.

Forms of Material:

Decisions.

General

Contact Information:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
Compiled by:
Kheel Staff, January 15, 2004
EAD encoding:
Kheel Staff, March 18, 2019
Title
Hill, James C. Arbitration Files
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Kheel Staff
Date
March 18, 2019
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Revision Statements

  • 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)

Repository Details

Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository

Contact:
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853