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.
