NLRB Offers New Ways to Access Information on Board Decisions, Other Matters

A Plus for Teamster Leaders & Researchers

Teamster leaders and union advocates spend a good deal of time researching labor board decisions and other matters to support organizing, negotiations and contract enforcement. This research is tedious and time consuming, given the number of issues facing Teamster members and their locals at any given time, and involves examining hard copy and web-based documents.

Recently, the National Labor Relations Board improved the way the public can search for documents posted on its web site, particularly Advice Memoranda issued by the Office of the General Counsel. Advice Memos are now arranged on the web site by date of issuance with a year-to-year breakdown going back to the 1960s. Previously, these memos were sorted by the date of their release to the public. Another improvement is a new tool that links a user to the most recent publicly available Advice Memos.

These enhancements will enable the Teamster leader, advocate and researcher to locate released Advice Memos by topic, case name, and number or date of issuance. These improvements were implemented by the Division of Advice, a section of the Office of the General Counsel that is responsible for legal research and advice to regional directors on issues Teamster leaders and advocates care about: unfair labor practice cases involving novel or difficult legal issues, including questions involving mandatory or discretionary injunction proceedings.

The Office of the General Counsel routinely releases to the public Advice Memos in cases where the Division of Advice concludes that the charge should be dismissed, and those where the Division authorized issuance of complaint but the case has closed and the case is not related to any open case. In announcing the research improvements on the site, NLRB General Counsel Arthur F. Rosenfeld stated:

We have not until now been able to provide a search mechanism for these memoranda. This new system will allow easy substantive research of these decisions. It will give the public and the Bar more information about the workings of the Office of the General Counsel, and is consistent with the principles of an open and transparent government.

Promoting greater accessibility is part of the NLRB's effort to make its decisions and other documents available online to the public, including Board decisions, Administrative Law Judge decisions, and Regional Director decisions, other General Counsel memoranda, the Weekly Summary of NLRB Decisions, manuals, Federal Register and other public notices, Rules and Regulations, and NLRB publications.

Among the agency's research tools already available is CiteNet, a searchable database containing the classified index of NLRB Board Decisions and Related Court Decisions, which allows the public to find a synopsis ("digest" or "scope note") of relevant issues found in board and selected court decisions since February 1, 1992 (Board volume 306 to present). The NLRB classification system is a detailed key number system for issues in board decisions. For more information, see http://gpea.nlrb.gov/CITENET/home/index.cfm. Researchers may search the database by classification number, topic keyword or case name. A quick start guide on the site explains how to use the system. Hard copies are also available through the Government Printing Office.

For more information on what's available online through the labor board, visit www.nlrb.gov.

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