National War Labor Board
The National War Labor Board was started up again by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on January 12, 1942. The chairman was William Hammatt Davis. The board's job was to prevent wartime labor disputes. Also to insure that higher wage settlements did not cause inflation. The board was generally favorable to unions. The board encouraged the use of fringe benefits instead of inflation-causing higher wages. In 1942 the board began a maintenance of membership policy which attracted new members into labor unions. Unions understood they had to minimize any activism among their members in order to gain favorable rulings from the NWLB. Dispite the efforts of labor unions there were wartime strikes. Most of these were unauthorized (by the unions) or wildcat strikes (non-union). The CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), later part of the AFL-CIO, largely cooperated with the board. When the number of strikes peaked in 1944 CIO members maintained their no-strike pledge. By the time the war ended, membership in the CIO was nearly 5 million. The NWLB provided arbitrators on an honorary basis, that is, without fees. But they encouraged paid arbitrators and by war's end most who arbitrated disputes were paid a fee of from $25–$100 per day. In 1945 the board was disbanded. A wave of strikes broke out just the same as when the NWLB ended in 1918.