[6] Sidney Hillman, a member of the National Defense Advisory Commission, recommended a tripartite mediation board to President Franklin D. Roosevelt because it might be more acceptable to union leaders than antistrike legislation.
[3] Under Roosevelt's executive order, only the secretary of labor could certify the NDMB to rule on disputes threatening defense production.
[9] Thus, partly because of its inability to render final decision, the NDMB emphasized collective bargaining and voluntarism, rather than federal determination, in settling labor disputes.
[10] In the two cases where voluntary arbitration and mediation had failed and management refused to accept Board recommendations, the president seized the plants by executive order.
[11] Therefore, although the NDMB was often criticized for lacking formal powers of arbitration, the threat of governmental seizure and public pressure to comply with its recommendations gave the Board substantial authority in dispute mediation.
As James B. Atleson writes, mediation is a difficult model to apply unless parties can reach a compromise on conceptual principles.
[15] However, shortly following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board, a similar tripartite agency with expanded powers.