James A. Gross NLRB Oral Histories

Professor Gross teaches Labor Law, Labor Arbitration, and a course entitled Values, Rights and Justice in Economics, Law, and Industrial Relations. He received his B.S. from LaSalle College, M.A. from Temple University, and Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin.

Professor Gross is a member of National Academy of Arbitrators and on the labor arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and New York State Public Employment Relations Board, as well as being a panelist named in several contracts.[www.ilr.cornell.edu/directory/jag28/biography.htm]

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created in 1935 under the authority of the National Labor Relations Act (popularly known as the Wagner Act). Its purpose was to implement and administer the Wagner Act which affirmed the right of employees to organize and designate representatives for collective bargaining. Beyond the Board's Wagner Act powers, the War Labor Disputes Act of 1943 authorized the NLRB to intervene to settle wartime labor disputes which threatened to impede war production. The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (popularly known as the Taft-Hartley Act), as amended, defined additional practices forbidden to organized labor and limited NLRB generally to judicial and policy-making functions.



The NLRB created under the Wagner Act was preceded by two earlier Boards created by President Roosevelt. The National Labor Board was established in 1933 for the purpose of adjusting industrial disputes resulting from the president's Reemployment Agreement or approved code of fair competition under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The Labor Board was replaced less than a year later by the first National Labor Relations Board. Both early Boards functioned through regional offices to deal with labor controversies in the field. The first NLRB ceased to function after the NIRA was declared unconstitutional in May of 1935.