NLRB Stats Archive › Annual Reports › FY1939 › Comparison of number of workers involved in cases brought before the National Labor Relations Board and number of workers involved in strikes beginning in each month, for all causes, and for organization, October 1935-June 1939

Comparison of number of workers involved in cases brought before the National Labor Relations Board and number of workers involved in strikes beginning in each month, for all causes, and for organization, October 1935-June 1939

printed as Table 2 · source page 200 · nlrb1939_p0200_t0

Year and month	Number of workers involved in cases brought before Board	Number of workers involved in strikes		Ratio of Board cases to strikes
Year and month	Number of workers involved in cases brought before Board	For all causes	For organization	Percent for all causes	Percent for organization
Year and month	[1]	[2]	[3]	[(1) over (2)]	[(1) over (3)]
1935
October	47,790	92,357	28,213	52	169
November	47,580	34,661	8,259	137	576
December	27,580	14,133	4,059	195	679
1936
Total	523,138	763,783	419,538	68	125
January	20,346	30,001	7,225	68	282
February	5,424	62,259	35,898	9	15
March	19,300	74,475	13,811	26	140
April	11,646	62,551	45,465	19	26
May	26,460	71,625	45,388	37	58
June	34,739	61,243	29,250	57	119
July	31,936	36,115	11,893	88	269
August	8,565	64,510	46,252	13	19
September	9,214	60,555	29,730	15	31
October	27,335	96,608	66,898	28	41
November	309,187	70,515	33,795	438	915
December	18,986	73,326	53,933	26	35
1937
Total	2,339,631	1,816,847	1,051,523	129	222
January	24,744	106,076	73,292	23	34
February	74,870	106,910	40,949	70	183
March	49,187	281,887	185,049	17	26
April	159,051	214,760	114,965	74	138
May	315,470	321,022	229,936	98	137
June	369,737	278,783	131,574	133	281
July	305,049	139,976	72,173	218	423
August	304,237	134,078	91,125	227	334
September	180,291	84,032	50,387	215	358
October	175,951	61,395	25,923	287	679
November	225,410	66,168	20,283	341	1,111
December	155,634	21,760	14,954	715	1,041
1938
Total	1,219,489	652,927	196,748	187	620
January	121,113	32,357	13,312	374	910
February	106,172	50,935	5,719	208	1,856
March	154,868	53,914	20,395	287	759
April	176,414	75,840	20,390	233	865
May	92,917	86,792	15,810	107	588
June	102,813	49,602	23,353	207	440
July	85,065	45,071	11,171	189	761
August	77,091	45,919	13,997	168	551
September	82,831	90,887	28,779	91	288
October	67,381	50,167	12,939	134	519
November	76,807	37,770	19,579	203	392
December	76,017	33,673	11,239	226	676
1939
January	149,186	48,271	16,719	309	892
February	135,595	64,499	24,431	210	555
March	123,782	40,783	16,612	304	745
April	113,905	60,087	19,209	190	593
May	89,592	77,995	43,093	115	208
June	70,032	55,714	7,441	126	941

Download this table (CSV)

1 The bituminous coal stoppage has not been included. There were an estimated 330,000 workers involved in this during April and an estimated 13,500 involved during May. The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has classified this by major issue as an organization strike.
Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Strike Statistics Section. Strike data are for disputes beginning in the month, issued monthly, and broken down by major issue involved. The total revised figures issued annually by the Bureau, of strikes beginning in the year, are not broken down by cause. The yearly strike totals in the above table are thus unrevised and are the sum of the monthly figures.

39 of 144 figures sit in a row or column sum that works out.

Reader’s notes

p. 200. Layout: each year heading is a label-only section line, and within 1936, 1937 and 1938 the "Total" line is printed immediately under the year heading, i.e. before that year's twelve monthly rows (the totals do equal the sums of the months that follow them). 1935 (3 months) and 1939 (6 months) carry no Total line, as printed. Doubtful cells, all in the 1937 block, where the scan is degraded and 3/8/9 are hard to separate; in each case I chose the reading that reconciles with the printed column total and/or the printed ratio: - March 1937, "For all causes": read 281,887. The hundred-thousands digit could be taken for a 3 (231,887), but only 281,887 makes the column add to the printed 1,816,847 and makes the printed 17 percent correct. - June 1937, "For all causes": read 278,783 for the same two reasons (the column then sums exactly to 1,816,847). - June 1937, "Percent for organization": read 281; the middle digit could be read as 3, but 369,737/131,574 = 281. - August 1937 and September 1937, column (1): read 304,237 and 180,291. The pair could also be 304,297 and 180,231 (either pair gives the printed total 2,339,631); I chose 180,291 because 180,231/84,032 is 214.5, while the printed percent is 215. Column totals that do not reconcile with my reading: - 1937 "For organization": my cells sum to 1,051,610 against the printed 1,051,523 (87 high), so one cell in that column is misread. The two likeliest are January 73,292 (the thousands separator prints as a dot) and March 185,049, which also implies 26.6 percent where 26 is printed. - 1938 "For organization": my cells sum to 196,683 against the printed 196,748 (65 low). October 1938 is the most suspect cell: 12,939 implies 521 percent where 519 is printed (519 would need about 12,983). Footnote markers: the raised 1 is printed to the left of the April and May 1939 figures in columns (2) and (3); per the convention it is written after the value. Nothing is cut off by the crop.

Source image

Source page 200 of NLRB FY1939 annual report — Source: NLRB Annual Report FY1939, p. 200.

Source data: U.S. NLRB Annual Reports (public domain). Reconstruction by NLRB Stats Archive. Read by claude-opus-5 (effort max, prompt extract_v1) from the 300-dpi scan; stitched by page. Updated October 2026.