John C. Truesdale
Encyclopedia
John Cushman Truesdale, Jr. (July 17, 1921 – July 3, 2011) was an American lawyer and civil servant who served two terms as Executive Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board
, four terms as a Board member, and one term as Board Chair.
, to John C. and Hazel C. Truesdale. He was one of four children, and he had three sisters: Patty, Anne, and Mary. In 1927, his father was appointed professor of physical education at Grinnell College
in Grinnell, Iowa
. His father later was the college's men's basketball coach, and young John grew up in Grinnell and attended public schools there.
Like his siblings, he enrolled at Grinnell College and received his A.B. degree in social studies
in 1942.
He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard
and entered the service in 1943. His first post was as an anti-submarine warfare
instructor. From April 1944 to 1946, he was the anti-submarine warfare officer on the USS Peterson
, an Edsall class
destroyer escort
serving convoy duty in the North Atlantic. On April 15, Truesdale's first day aboard ship, the Peterson and two other destroyer escorts engaged and sank a German submarine, the U-550.
Truesdale enrolled in September 1946 at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations
at Cornell University
. He graduated with an M.S. in industrial and labor relations in May 1948. Cornell University had the only school of industrial relations at the time, and each year NLRB staff traveled to the school to hire qualified staff. One of Truesdale's professors had his entire class take the NLRB exam, and Truesdale scored well on it.
The Board offered Truesdale a job, and he was hired by the Buffalo
field office as a field examiner in 1948. For several months after his appointment, he rented a room from fellow labor lawyer and friend Richard Lipsitz, Sr.
Truesdale left the NLRB in 1957 after being appointed Deputy Director of the National Academy of Sciences
. From July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, he served as Director of Information for the International Geophysical Year. He returned to his post as Deputy Director after the event ended, serving until 1963.
Truesdale returned to the NLRB in 1963. He was appointed Associate Executive Secretary, and served in that role until 1968. He was promoted to Deputy Executive Secretary and served in that capacity until 1972. Truesdale had a positive opinion of Edward B. Miller
, the Nixon
-appointed chair of the NLRB chair from 1970 to 1974. "He did not come to the board to execute a management agenda," Truesdale said in 2006. "He was a very fair-minded person; he worked well with his colleagues." He received his J.D.
from Georgetown University Law Center
in 1972. That same year he was appointed Executive Secretary of the Board, the highest-ranking career office at the agency.
nominated Truesdale to be a Member of the NLRB on September 26, 1977, to fill the unexpired term of Peter D. Walther (who had resigned). The AFL-CIO was pushing Daniel Pollitt for the seat. Pollitt had been special counsel to Frank McCulloch, chair of the NLRB during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and employer groups (such as the Business Roundtable
and United States Chamber of Commerce
) were adamantly opposed to him. Walther and NLRB chair John H. Fanning
were advocates of Truesdale, however. Employer groups felt Truesdale was somewhat liberal but would help push Fanning to adopt a more moderate course. Carter, not wishing to begin a political fight over what was perceived as a minor appointment, nominated Truesdale. The United States Senate
confirmed him, and he served on the board from October 25, 1977, to August 27, 1980. Truesdale was succeeded as executive secretary by William Lubbers in 1979.
During his term on the Board, Truesdale provided the critical vote in General Knit of California, Inc., 239 NLRB 619 (1978). The United Steelworkers of America
had won an election, 134 to 104, at a specialized steel manufacturer, General Knit, Inc. The company asked the Board to overturn the election because the union had distributed a leaflet on election day questioning whether the company had made a profit. In 1977, the Board had held in Shopping Kart Food Market, 228 NLRB 1311 (1977) that elections should only be set aside only when egregious misstatements of fact occurred during election campaigning. Walther voted with other Republican
-appointed Board members to uphold the election, arguing that the Board's duty to quickly certify elections was more important than its duty to assure fair elections. The General Knit decision overturned Shopping Kart Food Market and restored the Board's old rule as handed down in Hollywood Ceramics. Truesdale provided the critical third vote in the case.
Carter nominated Truesdale for a full five-year term on the Board on August 5, 1980. But Senate Republicans, convinced Truesdale was excessively pro-labor, sought to delay his confirmation until after the November elections (which Republican Ronald Reagan was expected to win). The Republicans announced in mid-August that they would filibuster
Truesdale's appointment. By mid-September, Senate Republicans had adopted a much-enlarged strategy to bottle up large numbers of Carter appointees who would be able to serve past the end of the presidential term. On October 23, 1980, President Carter used his recess appointment
powers to appoint Truesdale to the NLRB once again. Truesdale's recess appointment was effective only until Congress came back into session.
However, President Ronald Reagan
withdrew Truesdale's nomination to the Board the day after his own inauguration, and Truesdale resigned effective January 26, 1981.
Truesdale's appointment, and his service until 1994, testified to his impartiality as Board executive secretary. For example, in 1989, AFL-CIO
President Lane Kirkland
asserted that Reagan-era appointees to the board had tilted their decisions heavily toward management and had failed to impose harsh penalties on employers to violated the law. Truesdale defended the Board, noting that only one member (Mary Miller Cracraft) had any employer connection before her service. Truesdale defended Cracraft as utterly impartial, and said that the National Labor Relations Act
's penalties were intended to be remedial and not punitive.
In 1990, Truesdale oversaw a partial shutdown of NLRB operations. Truesdale identified a major budget shortfall in early August. By late August, Truesdale ordered a ban on all travel, and said all ULP hearings cancelled. Exceptions were made for cases involving picketing or were violence might break out. Truesdale even considered furlough
ing all NRLB workers for two to three days in September.
During this period, Truesdale also pushed for the Board to engage in a rulemaking regarding the Supreme Court's decision in Communications Workers of America v. Beck
, 487 U.S. 735 (1988). In that decision, the Court held that, in a union security agreement, unions
are authorized by statute to collect from non-members only those fees and dues necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining
representative. The rights identified by the Court in Communications Workers of America v. Beck have since come to be known as "Beck rights." In October 1991, White House Counsel
C. Boyden Gray
began criticizing the Board and then-chair James M. Stephens for not adequately enforcing workers' Beck rights. Stephens had already proposed at this time a rulemaking
on the issue, and in October 1991 and May 1992 Stephens acceded to requests by White House staff to show them the rule so they could provide comments on it. In May 1992, for only the second time in its history, the National Labor Relations Board undertook a regulatory rulemaking
aimed at resolving the divergent, complex issues raised by the Beck decision. On September 3, 1992, even though the public comment period on the rule had closed, the White House sent a memo to Executive Secretary Truesdale indicating that comments on the rule were coming from the White House, that these comments should not be made public, that the White House expected these comments to be incorporated into the rule, and that the White House wanted to see the final rule before it was published. Truesdale and the Board's Solicitor General, John Higgins, sent a memo to the Board the following day outlining the White House's requests and positions. The Board voted 4-to-1 (with Member Dennis Devaney dissenting) not to consider or review the White House memo.
The proposed rule issued on September 22, 1992. But after three and a half years of inaction on the proposed regulation, the Board withdrew the rule on March 19, 1996—concluding that it could proceed faster through its more traditional case-by-case approach.
used his recess appointment powers to elevate Truesdale to the Board once again. Truesdale served just 38 days, until March 3, 1994.
The recess appointment came about due to a more urgent problem: The long-stalled nomination of William B. Gould IV, a Stanford University
law professor. President Bill Clinton
had nominated Gould to the NLRB in June 1993 with the intention of naming him chair. But Gould's appointment was held up by Senator Nancy Kassebaum, who (according to the New York Times
) wanted to exercise power over Republican appointments to the Board. According to Gould, Truesdale was interviewed by the Clinton administration in December 1993 and the offer of another recess appointment to the Board extended to him. The Clinton administration had allegedly discussed the Truesdale recess appointment with Kassebaum, and offered to not appoint Truesdale as chair; in return, Kassebaum would allow the Gould nomination to go forward. According to Gould, the administration also agreed to nominate Charles I. Cohen, a former NLRB attorney practicing with the law firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. The deal-making appeared to have worked, as Kassebaum relented on February 19, 1994. Gould was confirmed, 58 to 38, by the Senate on March 2, 1994.
In part, Truesdale's appointment was intended to give the National Labor Relations Board a quorum. Due to resignations, long periods between nominations, and long confirmation times in the Senate, only two of the five seats on the Board were occupied. Truesdale's recess appointment gave the Board a quorum and allowed it to conduct business. Truesdale's role was also to "keep the seat warm" for Gould, which is why his tenure lasted just 38 days.
Returning to his old role as Executive Secretary, Truesdale pushed the board to re-establish Rule 76–1, a procedural rule established by the Board in 1976. The rule required that, if three members of the Board had agreed to a draft opinion and no dissent had yet circulated, the opinion would be issued within two weeks if no dissent was circulated within that time. On September 30, Truesdale formally asked the Board to re-establish the rule, but the Board declined in favor of other approaches to improve the speed with which decisions were issued.
. This recess appointment lasted until January 3, 1996.
According to Gould, Truesdale was a hard worker who produced decisions quickly, but who also adapted his views to changing political winds. He also overwhelmingly supported any request by the General Counsel for legal action to enforce the Board's rulings. Gould and Truesdale clashed repeatedly on the role the Board should play as well. Gould felt the chair should speak out publicly about pending labor law reform and should sponsor conferences on current issues in labor law to keep itself and the staff informed. But Truesdale advocated silence on pending legislation, and that the Board should not create the appearance of partiality by sponsoring seminars.
Truesdale played a key role in several important decisions during his term on the Board. Among these were Makro, Inc., 316 NLRB 109 (1995) (better known as Loehmann's Plaza II), in which the Board reversed a precedent (Makro, Inc., 305 N.L.R.B. 663 [1991], also known as Loehmann's Plaza I) established just four years earlier and denied union picketers the right to access an employer's property; Oakland Mall, 316 NLRB 1160 (1995), also known as Oakland Mall II, in which the Board held that nonemployee handbilling
on behalf of a labor union may not occur on an employer's property; Leslie Homes, Inc., 316 NLRB 123 (1995), aff'd Metropolitan District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL-CIO v. NLRB, 68 F.3d 71 (3d. Cir. 1995), in which the Board held that a union may not picket on land occupied by homes being sold by a real estate developer. He also voted with the majority in important cases (California Saw & Knife Works, 320 NLRB 224 [1995], Paperworkers Local 1033 (Weyerhaeuser Paper Co.), 320 NLRB 349 [1995]) involving the rights of workers who are not union members as established in Communications Workers of America v. Beck
, 487 U.S. 735 (1988). California Saw was the NLRB's first ruling in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Beck. Truesdale and the majority held that whenever a union seeks to make employees pay dues under a union security agreement, it must inform all workers that they have the legal right to remain a non-member of the union and to pay only such fees as may be used for collective bargaining purposes (and no more). Paperworkers Local 1033 (Weyerhaeuser Paper Co.) addressed issues which California Saw did not, and Truesdale and the Board unanimously held that a union must inform all bargaining unit members (not just existing nonmembers) of their Beck rights and that they must inform all union members that they have the right to become a nonmember. In Canteen Co., 317 NLRB 1052 (1995), enf'd. 103 F.2d 1355 (7th Cir. 1997), Truesdale joined with the majority in a major new ruling on successorship. In Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, 482 U.S. 27 (1987), the Supreme Court had held that if a one company succeeds another, it has a duty to bargain with the previous company's union if there is a substantial continuity between the two companies and the new company retains at least 50 percent of the workforce. Joining an opinion written by Gould, Truesdale held that that the duty to bargain was not sundered by the employer's decision to change wage rates or benefit levels. In Keeler Brass Automotive group, 317 NLRB 1110 (1995), Gould convinced Truesdale and Cohen to change their vote and form a five-member majority in holding that a grievance committee is not a labor organization under the NLRA and hence cannot be a "company union
" (even if employer-dominated). In A.P.R.A. Fuel Oil Buyers Group, 320 NLRB 408 (1995), Truesdale joined with Gould against Democratic
Member Peggy Browning to interpret the Supreme Court's ruling in Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883 (1984). The Court had held in Sure-Tan that undocumented workers
are entitled to back pay awards under the NLRA. In A.P.R.A. Fuel Oil, the collective bargaining agreement required the employer to reinstate laid-off workers first when it begins hiring again. If there were no dismissed workers available, then the employer was required to hire union-referred workers. The union asserted that this included undocumented workers. But Truesdale and the majority held that the Board has no authority to force an employer to hire such undocumented workers.
(MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association
(MLBPA) had negotiated contracts eight times, and each time a strike action of varying length had occurred. By the spring of 1994, the possibility of a strike was rising, as owners and players argued over a salary cap
, revenue-sharing (which would "tax" the sport's top money-making teams and redistribute the funds to the weakest teams), and the extent of salary arbitration
. The NLRB was closely monitoring the situation, (in no small part because Chairman Gould was an avid baseball fan). On July 28, the MLBPA set a deadline of August 12, 1994, for a new collective bargaining
agreement or it would strike. The strike began on August 12, but despite the appointment of former Secretary of Labor
William Usery, Jr.
as a special mediator on October 13 the World Series
was cancelled for the first time in history. On December 22, the owners unilaterally imposed a salary cap and eliminated salary arbitration. On Christmas Eve, MLB announced it would start spring training with strikebreaker
players. Two days later, the owners and the players' association both filed unfair labor practice
(ULP) complaints with the NLRB, with each side claiming the other had not negotiated in good faith
. Meanwhile, the NLRB had initiated its own investigation into the strike (led by NLRB Regional Director Dan Silverman and NLRB General Counsel Fred Feinstein). The key issue for the board was whether the legal rules of negotiation had been followed. Under American labor law, the employer is permitted to implement its last offer if an impasse
had been reached. But the two sides had been negotiating since November, and it was not entirely clear that an impasse had been reached. Congress was considering legislation to make baseball subject to United States antitrust law, and on January 26 President Bill Clinton
announced that the two sides would have to make major progress to an agreement by February 6 or the federal government would intervene. On February 3, the owners unilaterally lifted their salary cap. But with no agreement even close, Usery hinted that he would recommend a legislative solution (perhaps removing the antitrust exemption, perhaps imposing binding arbitration) to the President. But Republicans in Congress (who had just won control of the House and Senate) signaled they would not enact any such legislation.
These developments made it more likely that the NLRB would be the one to decide the fate of the strike. Chairman Gould believed that General Counsel Feinstein was delaying the ULP investigation (perhaps to give negotiations a chance to work), but was troubled when Feinstein allegedly suggested that he become the Board's chief spokesperson. Because the Board and the General Counsel are legally independent entities by law, Gould refused to let Feinstein take the lead. Feinstein asked that he be allowed to speak to the entire Board on the issue. Truesdale and NLRB member James Stephens voiced considerable concern over this proposed meeting, as issues in the strike were likely to come before the Board and since the General Counsel and Board were supposed to be at arm's length. When Feinstein became upset at their comments, Gould suggested that he approach the Board's members himself. Feinstein did so, and won a meeting with the Board on March 8. But four of the five members of the Board expressed their dissatisfaction with Feinstein's proposal, and it was dropped.
On March 17, Feinstein presented the results of his ULP investigation to the Board and asked the Board to approve a 10(j) injunction
. Five days later, Truesdale and NLRB member Peggy Browning announced they were ready to approve the General Counsel's request. Gould then announced that the NLRB would meet in person on Thursday, Marcy 23, to discuss Feinstein's request (although it had never done so during his tenure before). Although Gould was ready to cast the third and determinative vote, on the night of March 22 Usery asked him to hold off on any decision as the two parties were making progress. Concerned that Usery was too closely aligned with the owners, Gould contacted White House Counsel
Abner J. Mikva
. Mikva advised Gould that "nobody thinks he [Usery] can reach the players. He has lost his influence." Gould informed Truesdale, Browning, and Feinstein of his conversation with Mikva after the call. The next morning (March 23), Gould repeated Usery's request to the entire Board (but not his conversation with Mikva), and recommended that the Board delay action. The Board unanimously agreed to delay its decision until Tuesday, March 28. The MBLPA was incensed that Usery had sought a delay from Gould, and negotiations collapsed (for that and other reasons). On the afternoon of Friday, March 24, Gould spoke privately with Truesdale and recommended that since negotiations seemed to be going nowhere (despite Usery's claims) the Board should meet on Sunday afternoon to vote on the 10(j) injunction request. Truesdale agreed, and Gould met privately with each of the other NLRB members to make the same request. Word of the meeting leaked to the New York Times
, which published word of the meeting on Saturday, March 25.
In what the Associated Press termed an "extraordinary" session, the NLRB met on Sunday afternoon, March 26, to discuss Feinstein's request for a 10(j) injunction. Truesdale was highly critical of Gould's repeated contacts and interviews with the press, and the Board voted 4-to-1 to bar contacts with reporters. Gould alone dissented, and said he would not abide by the Board's decision. Truesdale, seconded by Member Browning, also said that the Board should not even reveal the outcome of the vote (whether it was 3-to-2 or 4-to-1 or 5-to-0). Gould "took strong exception to this view". When members Stephens and Cohen demanded that they be allowed to publicize their votes, Truesdale backed off his proposal. Truesdale, Gould, and Browning discussed the injunction request only briefly; Member Stephens, however, made a long speech about the case, labor policy in general, and sports labor law. In the end, after a two-hour meeting, Gould provided the critical third vote (joining Truesdale and Browning) to approve the request for injunctive relief.
The day after the decision, Gould says, Truesdale came into his office and subjected him to loud verbal abuse (which devolved into a shouting match) because Truesdale was upset that Gould had spoke to the New York Times about the Board's decision. Gould lunched with Mikva after the incident, at which time Mikva allegedly counseled Gould to allow Truesdale and the other Board members to write opinions supporting their votes in this high-profile case. Gould was unwilling to do this, and told Mikva that Truesdale was too deferential to the General Counsel's requests to make that a valuable exercise. On March 28, Gould learned that Truesdale was about to publish comments critical of Gould's contacts with the press during the baseball strike. Gould asked Mikva if the White House would be willing to privately discipline Truesdale, but Mikva indicated it would not.
On March 31, 1995, Judge Sonia Sotomayor
of the District Court for the Southern District of New York
granted the NLRB's request for a 10(j) injunction, and the players returned to work in time for the 1995 baseball season to begin. On September 29, 1995, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
upheld Judge Sotomayor's injunction.
Aspects of Truesdale and Gould's relationship seem highly contentious. But Michael J. Goldberg, Vice Dean at the Widener University School of Law
, says that, while they differed on policy, their relationship was on the whole good and Truesdale's later account of his time on the NLRB with Gould is one of the more balanced ones.
William Gould's term as NLRB chair ended on August 27, 1998. Two days later, the Clinton White House asked Truesdale to return to the NLRB as chair. "I was very conflicted about it," Truesdale later said. "But I worked for the NLRB for almost 50 years. How can you say no?" The administration's rationale for picking Truesdale was his acceptability to employers, conservative groups, and Republicans in Congress as well as a desire to avoid the contentious relationship Gould had with these groups during his tenure as chair. Administration officials also hoped Truesdale would smooth relationships among NLRB members themselves, who often had an unhappy relationship with Gould.
Truesdale was given a recess appointment to the NLRB on December 4, 1998, and named chair by President Clinton. His recess appointment was due to expire in August 1999 when the Senate recessed, but he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on November 19, 1999. Truesdale said his only goal as chair would be to reduce the amount of time the Board took to issue a decision. Truesdale's term of office was due to expire on August 27, 2003, but he said that he would step down as chair once a new President was inaugurated in 2001.
During his tenure as chair, the Washington Post reported, Truesdale helped eliminate a severe backlog of cases. When Truesdale's term began, the Board had about 700 cases pending. James A. Gross
, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University
, said in 2011 that eliminating the case backlog and shortening the time between a case's initial filing and its resolution was Truesdale's major accomplishment as chair. True to his position taken during the baseball strike controversy, Truesdale also largely kept the NLRB out of the news media. Ex-chairman Gould alleged that the Truesdale Board failed to issue decisions on many of the policy issues which the Gould Board had been considering, and that the Truesdale Board declined to issue 10(j) injunctions. However, Daily Labor Report (an independent publication which monitors federal labor policy and the NLRB) said that Board members felt the NLRB was much more collegial under Truesdale.
Truesdale's term as chair of the NLRB lasted just over two years, and during that time the Board neither overturned much precedent nor generated new doctrine. However, in late February 200, the Board did decertify the Major League Umpires Association and certified the World Umpires Association
as the new union for umpires
in Major League Baseball
. Truesdale wrote the three-paragraph opinion certifying the new union. The Board also issued two important rulings in October and November 2000. The first, New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000), found that graduate student teaching and research assistants at private colleges and universities were employees as defined by the NLRA
. Truesdale convinced Republican
Member Peter J. Hurtgen to join himself and Member Wilma B. Liebman
in relying on Boston Medical Center, 330 NLRB 152 (1999) (which reversed precedent and found medical interns and residents to be employees) to find the graduate students to be employees. The same day, in NYP Acquisition Corp., 332 NLRB 1041 (2000), Truesdale convinced Member Sarah Fox to join himself and Hurtgen in significantly modifying the Board's successorship rulings. Rupert Murdoch
's News Corporation
bought the New York Post
in 1976. When News Corp. purchased a New York City television station in 1988, federal regulators required Murdoch to sell the Post. The new publisher went bankrupt in 1991, and News Corp. purchase the paper again in 1993. The New York Post subsequently laid off large numbers of union workers. With the NLRB only at three members due to resignations and delayed confirmations, Truesdale and Hurtgen joined to alter the Board's successorship test by concluding that the subsidiary News Corp. used to buy the paper in 1993 was sufficiently different from the 1976 News Corp. subsidiary and with sufficiently different goals that it did not trigger the Board's successorship duty-to-bargain requirements.
But in the waning months of the Clinton administration, Truesdale led the Board in making two major new rulings. The first came in M.B. Sturgis, Inc., 331 NLRB 1298 (2000), in which the Board overturned long-standing precedent and permitted temporary workers to unionize. And in Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio, 331 NLRB 676 (2000), the Board extended the right to have a worker representative present during disciplinary hearings to nonunion employees.
George W. Bush
won the 2000 U.S. presidential election, and Truesdale signaled that he would resign his seat on the Board in order to permit Bush to appoint his own chairperson. But there was concern that if Truesdale stepped down right away, the Board would lack a quorum until such time as the Senate confirmed Bush's new appointees. Subsequently, Truesdale delayed his resignation from the NLRB. As Bush's nominee for chair, Peter Hurtgen, was confirmed on May 15, 2001, but Truesdale remained on the Board to help the agency maintain its quorum. As his tenure as chair came to a close, Truesdale publicly urged Hurtgen and future NLRB chairs to look hard at existing precedent to ensure Board decisions met the needs of the modern workplace and to continue to keep the backlog of cases low.
Truesdale resigned as chair of the NLRB on May 14, 2001, but remained on the Board until resigning on October 1, 2001.
Rene Alexander Acosta was nominated on October 9, 2001, as Truesdale's replacement on the Board. Acosta was confirmed on November 22, 2002, for Truesdale's unexpired term that ended on August 27, 2003.
Although he was 78 years old when he left the NLRB in 1998, Truesdale continued to work as an arbitrator—and continued to make headlines. One such ruled came in the Banita Jacks
case. In 2008, Jacks was found guilty of starving and then murdering her four children (aged 5 to 16). Four days after the bodies were found, District of Columbia Mayor
Adrian Fenty
fired six employees of Washington's Child and Family Services Agency, saying they "just didn't do their job." Three of the social workers filed grievances with the city. Truesdale was assigned to the case as an arbitrator. In September 2008, Truesdale issued an opinion in which he ruled that all three had been illegally terminated. Truesdale ordered the city to rehire the social workers at the same pay and benefit grades, expunge the incident from their personnel records, and give them back pay (with interest) and benefits for the period while they were terminated.
Another case involved the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
(MPD). In 2007, newly-appointed MPD Chief of Police
Cathy L. Lanier announced the "All Hands on Deck" policy, in which all 4,000 MPD officers worked for three straight days to patrol high-crime neighborhoods and execute arrest warrants. Several "All Hands on Deck" periods occurred in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The Fraternal Order of Police
(FOP), a labor union representing police officers in the District of Columbia, filed six to 10 grievances over the practice, claiming it violated the collective bargaining agreement and broke D.C. law. In September 2009, Truesdale filed an arbitrator's report in which he held that the MPD forced officers to change vacation days and tours of duty in violation of the union contract, failed to bargain with the FOP over these unilateral contract changes, and ordered the city to halt the "All Hands on Deck" initiative. He also ordered the MPD to pay overtime (with interest) to those officers who worked extra shifts. Lanier said would appeal the ruling to the Public Employee Relations Board and the courts.
Truesdale moved from his home in Bethesda, Maryland
, to an assisted living
facility in Annapolis, Maryland
, in 2005. In early 2010, he moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia
, to be closer to family members. He passed away at West Virginia University Hospitals East-City Hospital
from cancer on July 3, 2010. He was survived by his wife and four children. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery
.
, Maryland Bar Association, and District of Columbia Bar Association. He was also a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a professional association of labor and employment law lawyers which promotes the practice of labor and employment law and honors outstanding achievement in these fields.
Truesdale was a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Labor Relations Agencies from 1983 to 1995, and served as the organization's president from 1992 to 1993. He was a long-time member of the D.C. chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association
, and was the association's president in 1989.
Truesdale was a well-known arbitrator, and he worked for the American Arbitration Association
, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, National Mediation Board
, and Oregon Employment Relations Board. He also served for a time as a member of the Foreign Service Grievance Board.
In 1988, Truesdale was awarded the President's Rank Award for Meritorious Executives, the second-highest annual award given to members of the Senior Executive Service in the U.S. federal government.
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...
, four terms as a Board member, and one term as Board Chair.
Early life and career
John Truesdale was born on July 17, 1921, in Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, to John C. and Hazel C. Truesdale. He was one of four children, and he had three sisters: Patty, Anne, and Mary. In 1927, his father was appointed professor of physical education at Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....
in Grinnell, Iowa
Grinnell, Iowa
Grinnell is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,218 at the 2010 census. Grinnell was named after Josiah Bushnell Grinnell and is the home of Grinnell College.- History :...
. His father later was the college's men's basketball coach, and young John grew up in Grinnell and attended public schools there.
Like his siblings, he enrolled at Grinnell College and received his A.B. degree in social studies
Social studies
Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...
in 1942.
He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
and entered the service in 1943. His first post was as an anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
instructor. From April 1944 to 1946, he was the anti-submarine warfare officer on the USS Peterson
USS Peterson (DE-152)
USS Peterson was an Edsall class destroyer escort, the first United States Navy ship so named. This ship was named for Chief Water Tender Oscar V...
, an Edsall class
Edsall class destroyer escort
The Edsall class destroyer escorts were built primarily for ocean anti-submarine escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Edsall was commissioned on 10 April 1943 at Orange, Texas. The class was also known as the FMR type from their Fairbanks-Morse Reduction-geared diesel drive...
destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
serving convoy duty in the North Atlantic. On April 15, Truesdale's first day aboard ship, the Peterson and two other destroyer escorts engaged and sank a German submarine, the U-550.
Truesdale enrolled in September 1946 at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations
The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations is an industrial relations school at Cornell University, an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, USA...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. He graduated with an M.S. in industrial and labor relations in May 1948. Cornell University had the only school of industrial relations at the time, and each year NLRB staff traveled to the school to hire qualified staff. One of Truesdale's professors had his entire class take the NLRB exam, and Truesdale scored well on it.
The Board offered Truesdale a job, and he was hired by the Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
field office as a field examiner in 1948. For several months after his appointment, he rented a room from fellow labor lawyer and friend Richard Lipsitz, Sr.
Early NLRB career
Truesdale proved to be a highly regarded field examiner. The NLRB offered to transfer him to more highly sought-after posts in other field offices over the next three years, but he declined each time. But believing that another refusal might hurt his career, he accepted a transfer to New Orleans in 1951. There he met Karin Nelson, a field examiner and labor economist from the San Francisco office who was on temporary assignment. Truesdale moved to Washington, D.C., in 1952, where he was appointed an administrative analyst for the Board. He wed Karin Nelson in 1957.Truesdale left the NLRB in 1957 after being appointed Deputy Director of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. From July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, he served as Director of Information for the International Geophysical Year. He returned to his post as Deputy Director after the event ended, serving until 1963.
Truesdale returned to the NLRB in 1963. He was appointed Associate Executive Secretary, and served in that role until 1968. He was promoted to Deputy Executive Secretary and served in that capacity until 1972. Truesdale had a positive opinion of Edward B. Miller
Edward B. Miller
Edward B. Miller , served as Deputy Chief of Staff to former Maryland Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich.- Biography :...
, the Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
-appointed chair of the NLRB chair from 1970 to 1974. "He did not come to the board to execute a management agenda," Truesdale said in 2006. "He was a very fair-minded person; he worked well with his colleagues." He received his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
in 1972. That same year he was appointed Executive Secretary of the Board, the highest-ranking career office at the agency.
First NLRB term, 1977–1981
President Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
nominated Truesdale to be a Member of the NLRB on September 26, 1977, to fill the unexpired term of Peter D. Walther (who had resigned). The AFL-CIO was pushing Daniel Pollitt for the seat. Pollitt had been special counsel to Frank McCulloch, chair of the NLRB during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and employer groups (such as the Business Roundtable
Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable is a politically conservative group of chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations formed to promote pro-business public policy.-History:...
and United States Chamber of Commerce
United States Chamber of Commerce
The United States Chamber of Commerce is an American lobbying group representing the interests of many businesses and trade associations. It is not an agency of the United States government....
) were adamantly opposed to him. Walther and NLRB chair John H. Fanning
John H. Fanning
John Harold Fanning was an American lawyer and member of the National Labor Relations Board for a record 25 years . He was the Board's Chair from 1977 to 1981.-Early life:...
were advocates of Truesdale, however. Employer groups felt Truesdale was somewhat liberal but would help push Fanning to adopt a more moderate course. Carter, not wishing to begin a political fight over what was perceived as a minor appointment, nominated Truesdale. The United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
confirmed him, and he served on the board from October 25, 1977, to August 27, 1980. Truesdale was succeeded as executive secretary by William Lubbers in 1979.
During his term on the Board, Truesdale provided the critical vote in General Knit of California, Inc., 239 NLRB 619 (1978). The United Steelworkers of America
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
had won an election, 134 to 104, at a specialized steel manufacturer, General Knit, Inc. The company asked the Board to overturn the election because the union had distributed a leaflet on election day questioning whether the company had made a profit. In 1977, the Board had held in Shopping Kart Food Market, 228 NLRB 1311 (1977) that elections should only be set aside only when egregious misstatements of fact occurred during election campaigning. Walther voted with other Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-appointed Board members to uphold the election, arguing that the Board's duty to quickly certify elections was more important than its duty to assure fair elections. The General Knit decision overturned Shopping Kart Food Market and restored the Board's old rule as handed down in Hollywood Ceramics. Truesdale provided the critical third vote in the case.
Carter nominated Truesdale for a full five-year term on the Board on August 5, 1980. But Senate Republicans, convinced Truesdale was excessively pro-labor, sought to delay his confirmation until after the November elections (which Republican Ronald Reagan was expected to win). The Republicans announced in mid-August that they would filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
Truesdale's appointment. By mid-September, Senate Republicans had adopted a much-enlarged strategy to bottle up large numbers of Carter appointees who would be able to serve past the end of the presidential term. On October 23, 1980, President Carter used his recess appointment
Recess appointment
A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the U.S. Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office, but while the Senate is in...
powers to appoint Truesdale to the NLRB once again. Truesdale's recess appointment was effective only until Congress came back into session.
However, President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
withdrew Truesdale's nomination to the Board the day after his own inauguration, and Truesdale resigned effective January 26, 1981.
Return as Executive Secretary
But in a surprise move, the remaining NLRB members voted to appoint Truesdale as the Board's executive secretary. President Carter had nominated Executive Secretary William Lubbers to be the Board's General Counsel on November 28, 1979, but when Republican Senators said they would filibuster the nomination Carter used his recess appointment powers to elevate Lubbers to the post. Robert Volger, Deputy Executive Secretary, was named Acting Executive Secretary. With the position still unfilled by the start of 1981, Truesdale applied for the job on January 18.Truesdale's appointment, and his service until 1994, testified to his impartiality as Board executive secretary. For example, in 1989, AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
President Lane Kirkland
Lane Kirkland
Joseph Lane Kirkland was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.-Biography:...
asserted that Reagan-era appointees to the board had tilted their decisions heavily toward management and had failed to impose harsh penalties on employers to violated the law. Truesdale defended the Board, noting that only one member (Mary Miller Cracraft) had any employer connection before her service. Truesdale defended Cracraft as utterly impartial, and said that the National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act , is a 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions , engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in...
's penalties were intended to be remedial and not punitive.
In 1990, Truesdale oversaw a partial shutdown of NLRB operations. Truesdale identified a major budget shortfall in early August. By late August, Truesdale ordered a ban on all travel, and said all ULP hearings cancelled. Exceptions were made for cases involving picketing or were violence might break out. Truesdale even considered furlough
Furlough
In the United States a furlough is a temporary unpaid leave of some employees due to special needs of a company, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole...
ing all NRLB workers for two to three days in September.
During this period, Truesdale also pushed for the Board to engage in a rulemaking regarding the Supreme Court's decision in Communications Workers of America v. Beck
Communications Workers of America v. Beck
Communications Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 is a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that, in a union security agreement, unions are authorized by statute to collect from non-members only those fees and dues necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining...
, 487 U.S. 735 (1988). In that decision, the Court held that, in a union security agreement, unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
are authorized by statute to collect from non-members only those fees and dues necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
representative. The rights identified by the Court in Communications Workers of America v. Beck have since come to be known as "Beck rights." In October 1991, White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
C. Boyden Gray
C. Boyden Gray
Clayland Boyden Gray is a former American diplomat and public servant. He is a member of the board of directors at the Atlantic Council and at The European Institute....
began criticizing the Board and then-chair James M. Stephens for not adequately enforcing workers' Beck rights. Stephens had already proposed at this time a rulemaking
Rulemaking
In administrative law, rulemaking refers to the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or promulgate, regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more detailed regulations through rulemaking.By bringing...
on the issue, and in October 1991 and May 1992 Stephens acceded to requests by White House staff to show them the rule so they could provide comments on it. In May 1992, for only the second time in its history, the National Labor Relations Board undertook a regulatory rulemaking
Rulemaking
In administrative law, rulemaking refers to the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or promulgate, regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more detailed regulations through rulemaking.By bringing...
aimed at resolving the divergent, complex issues raised by the Beck decision. On September 3, 1992, even though the public comment period on the rule had closed, the White House sent a memo to Executive Secretary Truesdale indicating that comments on the rule were coming from the White House, that these comments should not be made public, that the White House expected these comments to be incorporated into the rule, and that the White House wanted to see the final rule before it was published. Truesdale and the Board's Solicitor General, John Higgins, sent a memo to the Board the following day outlining the White House's requests and positions. The Board voted 4-to-1 (with Member Dennis Devaney dissenting) not to consider or review the White House memo.
The proposed rule issued on September 22, 1992. But after three and a half years of inaction on the proposed regulation, the Board withdrew the rule on March 19, 1996—concluding that it could proceed faster through its more traditional case-by-case approach.
Second NLRB term, 1994
On January 24, 1994, President Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
used his recess appointment powers to elevate Truesdale to the Board once again. Truesdale served just 38 days, until March 3, 1994.
The recess appointment came about due to a more urgent problem: The long-stalled nomination of William B. Gould IV, a Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
law professor. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
had nominated Gould to the NLRB in June 1993 with the intention of naming him chair. But Gould's appointment was held up by Senator Nancy Kassebaum, who (according to the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
) wanted to exercise power over Republican appointments to the Board. According to Gould, Truesdale was interviewed by the Clinton administration in December 1993 and the offer of another recess appointment to the Board extended to him. The Clinton administration had allegedly discussed the Truesdale recess appointment with Kassebaum, and offered to not appoint Truesdale as chair; in return, Kassebaum would allow the Gould nomination to go forward. According to Gould, the administration also agreed to nominate Charles I. Cohen, a former NLRB attorney practicing with the law firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart. The deal-making appeared to have worked, as Kassebaum relented on February 19, 1994. Gould was confirmed, 58 to 38, by the Senate on March 2, 1994.
In part, Truesdale's appointment was intended to give the National Labor Relations Board a quorum. Due to resignations, long periods between nominations, and long confirmation times in the Senate, only two of the five seats on the Board were occupied. Truesdale's recess appointment gave the Board a quorum and allowed it to conduct business. Truesdale's role was also to "keep the seat warm" for Gould, which is why his tenure lasted just 38 days.
Returning to his old role as Executive Secretary, Truesdale pushed the board to re-establish Rule 76–1, a procedural rule established by the Board in 1976. The rule required that, if three members of the Board had agreed to a draft opinion and no dissent had yet circulated, the opinion would be issued within two weeks if no dissent was circulated within that time. On September 30, Truesdale formally asked the Board to re-establish the rule, but the Board declined in favor of other approaches to improve the speed with which decisions were issued.
Third NLRB term, 1994–1996
Truesdale returned to his position as the Board's executive secretary, but on December 23, 1994, President Clinton again named him to a recess appointment on the Board. Truesdale replaced Dennis Devaney, a conservative Democrat appointed to the Board by President George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. This recess appointment lasted until January 3, 1996.
According to Gould, Truesdale was a hard worker who produced decisions quickly, but who also adapted his views to changing political winds. He also overwhelmingly supported any request by the General Counsel for legal action to enforce the Board's rulings. Gould and Truesdale clashed repeatedly on the role the Board should play as well. Gould felt the chair should speak out publicly about pending labor law reform and should sponsor conferences on current issues in labor law to keep itself and the staff informed. But Truesdale advocated silence on pending legislation, and that the Board should not create the appearance of partiality by sponsoring seminars.
Truesdale played a key role in several important decisions during his term on the Board. Among these were Makro, Inc., 316 NLRB 109 (1995) (better known as Loehmann's Plaza II), in which the Board reversed a precedent (Makro, Inc., 305 N.L.R.B. 663 [1991], also known as Loehmann's Plaza I) established just four years earlier and denied union picketers the right to access an employer's property; Oakland Mall, 316 NLRB 1160 (1995), also known as Oakland Mall II, in which the Board held that nonemployee handbilling
Flyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
on behalf of a labor union may not occur on an employer's property; Leslie Homes, Inc., 316 NLRB 123 (1995), aff'd Metropolitan District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL-CIO v. NLRB, 68 F.3d 71 (3d. Cir. 1995), in which the Board held that a union may not picket on land occupied by homes being sold by a real estate developer. He also voted with the majority in important cases (California Saw & Knife Works, 320 NLRB 224 [1995], Paperworkers Local 1033 (Weyerhaeuser Paper Co.), 320 NLRB 349 [1995]) involving the rights of workers who are not union members as established in Communications Workers of America v. Beck
Communications Workers of America v. Beck
Communications Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 is a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that, in a union security agreement, unions are authorized by statute to collect from non-members only those fees and dues necessary to perform its duties as a collective bargaining...
, 487 U.S. 735 (1988). California Saw was the NLRB's first ruling in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Beck. Truesdale and the majority held that whenever a union seeks to make employees pay dues under a union security agreement, it must inform all workers that they have the legal right to remain a non-member of the union and to pay only such fees as may be used for collective bargaining purposes (and no more). Paperworkers Local 1033 (Weyerhaeuser Paper Co.) addressed issues which California Saw did not, and Truesdale and the Board unanimously held that a union must inform all bargaining unit members (not just existing nonmembers) of their Beck rights and that they must inform all union members that they have the right to become a nonmember. In Canteen Co., 317 NLRB 1052 (1995), enf'd. 103 F.2d 1355 (7th Cir. 1997), Truesdale joined with the majority in a major new ruling on successorship. In Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, 482 U.S. 27 (1987), the Supreme Court had held that if a one company succeeds another, it has a duty to bargain with the previous company's union if there is a substantial continuity between the two companies and the new company retains at least 50 percent of the workforce. Joining an opinion written by Gould, Truesdale held that that the duty to bargain was not sundered by the employer's decision to change wage rates or benefit levels. In Keeler Brass Automotive group, 317 NLRB 1110 (1995), Gould convinced Truesdale and Cohen to change their vote and form a five-member majority in holding that a grievance committee is not a labor organization under the NLRA and hence cannot be a "company union
Company union
A company union is a trade union which is located within and run by a company or by the national government, and is not affiliated with an independent trade union. Company unions were outlawed in the United States by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, due to their use as agents for interference...
" (even if employer-dominated). In A.P.R.A. Fuel Oil Buyers Group, 320 NLRB 408 (1995), Truesdale joined with Gould against Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Member Peggy Browning to interpret the Supreme Court's ruling in Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883 (1984). The Court had held in Sure-Tan that undocumented workers
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...
are entitled to back pay awards under the NLRA. In A.P.R.A. Fuel Oil, the collective bargaining agreement required the employer to reinstate laid-off workers first when it begins hiring again. If there were no dismissed workers available, then the employer was required to hire union-referred workers. The union asserted that this included undocumented workers. But Truesdale and the majority held that the Board has no authority to force an employer to hire such undocumented workers.
The baseball strike
But his most important decision came in the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
(MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association
Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players...
(MLBPA) had negotiated contracts eight times, and each time a strike action of varying length had occurred. By the spring of 1994, the possibility of a strike was rising, as owners and players argued over a salary cap
Salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap is a cartel agreement between teams that places a limit on the amount of money that can be spent on player salaries. The limit exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both...
, revenue-sharing (which would "tax" the sport's top money-making teams and redistribute the funds to the weakest teams), and the extent of salary arbitration
Arbitration
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
. The NLRB was closely monitoring the situation, (in no small part because Chairman Gould was an avid baseball fan). On July 28, the MLBPA set a deadline of August 12, 1994, for a new collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
agreement or it would strike. The strike began on August 12, but despite the appointment of former Secretary of Labor
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who exercises control over the department and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all other issues involving any form of business-person controversies....
William Usery, Jr.
William Usery, Jr.
Willie Julian Usery, Jr. was a labor union activist and U.S. government political appointee who served as United States Secretary of Labor in the Ford administration....
as a special mediator on October 13 the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
was cancelled for the first time in history. On December 22, the owners unilaterally imposed a salary cap and eliminated salary arbitration. On Christmas Eve, MLB announced it would start spring training with strikebreaker
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
players. Two days later, the owners and the players' association both filed unfair labor practice
Unfair labor practice
In United States labor law, the term unfair labor practice refers to certain actions taken by employers or unions that violate the National Labor Relations Act and other legislation...
(ULP) complaints with the NLRB, with each side claiming the other had not negotiated in good faith
Good faith
In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy...
. Meanwhile, the NLRB had initiated its own investigation into the strike (led by NLRB Regional Director Dan Silverman and NLRB General Counsel Fred Feinstein). The key issue for the board was whether the legal rules of negotiation had been followed. Under American labor law, the employer is permitted to implement its last offer if an impasse
Impasse
A bargaining impasse occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach an agreement and become deadlocked. An impasse is almost invariably mutually harmful, either as a result of direct action which may be taken such as a strike in employment negotiation or sanctions/military...
had been reached. But the two sides had been negotiating since November, and it was not entirely clear that an impasse had been reached. Congress was considering legislation to make baseball subject to United States antitrust law, and on January 26 President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
announced that the two sides would have to make major progress to an agreement by February 6 or the federal government would intervene. On February 3, the owners unilaterally lifted their salary cap. But with no agreement even close, Usery hinted that he would recommend a legislative solution (perhaps removing the antitrust exemption, perhaps imposing binding arbitration) to the President. But Republicans in Congress (who had just won control of the House and Senate) signaled they would not enact any such legislation.
These developments made it more likely that the NLRB would be the one to decide the fate of the strike. Chairman Gould believed that General Counsel Feinstein was delaying the ULP investigation (perhaps to give negotiations a chance to work), but was troubled when Feinstein allegedly suggested that he become the Board's chief spokesperson. Because the Board and the General Counsel are legally independent entities by law, Gould refused to let Feinstein take the lead. Feinstein asked that he be allowed to speak to the entire Board on the issue. Truesdale and NLRB member James Stephens voiced considerable concern over this proposed meeting, as issues in the strike were likely to come before the Board and since the General Counsel and Board were supposed to be at arm's length. When Feinstein became upset at their comments, Gould suggested that he approach the Board's members himself. Feinstein did so, and won a meeting with the Board on March 8. But four of the five members of the Board expressed their dissatisfaction with Feinstein's proposal, and it was dropped.
On March 17, Feinstein presented the results of his ULP investigation to the Board and asked the Board to approve a 10(j) injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
. Five days later, Truesdale and NLRB member Peggy Browning announced they were ready to approve the General Counsel's request. Gould then announced that the NLRB would meet in person on Thursday, Marcy 23, to discuss Feinstein's request (although it had never done so during his tenure before). Although Gould was ready to cast the third and determinative vote, on the night of March 22 Usery asked him to hold off on any decision as the two parties were making progress. Concerned that Usery was too closely aligned with the owners, Gould contacted White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
Abner J. Mikva
Abner J. Mikva
Abner Joseph Mikva is a Democratic former U.S. Representative, federal judge and law professor from Chicago.-Biography:Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mikva attended the University of Chicago Law School, from which he graduated in 1951...
. Mikva advised Gould that "nobody thinks he [Usery] can reach the players. He has lost his influence." Gould informed Truesdale, Browning, and Feinstein of his conversation with Mikva after the call. The next morning (March 23), Gould repeated Usery's request to the entire Board (but not his conversation with Mikva), and recommended that the Board delay action. The Board unanimously agreed to delay its decision until Tuesday, March 28. The MBLPA was incensed that Usery had sought a delay from Gould, and negotiations collapsed (for that and other reasons). On the afternoon of Friday, March 24, Gould spoke privately with Truesdale and recommended that since negotiations seemed to be going nowhere (despite Usery's claims) the Board should meet on Sunday afternoon to vote on the 10(j) injunction request. Truesdale agreed, and Gould met privately with each of the other NLRB members to make the same request. Word of the meeting leaked to the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, which published word of the meeting on Saturday, March 25.
In what the Associated Press termed an "extraordinary" session, the NLRB met on Sunday afternoon, March 26, to discuss Feinstein's request for a 10(j) injunction. Truesdale was highly critical of Gould's repeated contacts and interviews with the press, and the Board voted 4-to-1 to bar contacts with reporters. Gould alone dissented, and said he would not abide by the Board's decision. Truesdale, seconded by Member Browning, also said that the Board should not even reveal the outcome of the vote (whether it was 3-to-2 or 4-to-1 or 5-to-0). Gould "took strong exception to this view". When members Stephens and Cohen demanded that they be allowed to publicize their votes, Truesdale backed off his proposal. Truesdale, Gould, and Browning discussed the injunction request only briefly; Member Stephens, however, made a long speech about the case, labor policy in general, and sports labor law. In the end, after a two-hour meeting, Gould provided the critical third vote (joining Truesdale and Browning) to approve the request for injunctive relief.
The day after the decision, Gould says, Truesdale came into his office and subjected him to loud verbal abuse (which devolved into a shouting match) because Truesdale was upset that Gould had spoke to the New York Times about the Board's decision. Gould lunched with Mikva after the incident, at which time Mikva allegedly counseled Gould to allow Truesdale and the other Board members to write opinions supporting their votes in this high-profile case. Gould was unwilling to do this, and told Mikva that Truesdale was too deferential to the General Counsel's requests to make that a valuable exercise. On March 28, Gould learned that Truesdale was about to publish comments critical of Gould's contacts with the press during the baseball strike. Gould asked Mikva if the White House would be willing to privately discipline Truesdale, but Mikva indicated it would not.
On March 31, 1995, Judge Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice....
of the District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...
granted the NLRB's request for a 10(j) injunction, and the players returned to work in time for the 1995 baseball season to begin. On September 29, 1995, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
upheld Judge Sotomayor's injunction.
Aspects of Truesdale and Gould's relationship seem highly contentious. But Michael J. Goldberg, Vice Dean at the Widener University School of Law
Widener University School of Law
Widener University School of Law is the ABA accredited law school of Widener University. The school, founded in 1971 as the Delaware Law School, operates on two of Widener's campuses, one in Wilmington, Delaware, and the other in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania....
, says that, while they differed on policy, their relationship was on the whole good and Truesdale's later account of his time on the NLRB with Gould is one of the more balanced ones.
NLRB chairmanship, 1998–2001
Truesdale retired after his third term on the NRLB ended in 1996, although he continued to act part-time as a labor arbitrator.William Gould's term as NLRB chair ended on August 27, 1998. Two days later, the Clinton White House asked Truesdale to return to the NLRB as chair. "I was very conflicted about it," Truesdale later said. "But I worked for the NLRB for almost 50 years. How can you say no?" The administration's rationale for picking Truesdale was his acceptability to employers, conservative groups, and Republicans in Congress as well as a desire to avoid the contentious relationship Gould had with these groups during his tenure as chair. Administration officials also hoped Truesdale would smooth relationships among NLRB members themselves, who often had an unhappy relationship with Gould.
Truesdale was given a recess appointment to the NLRB on December 4, 1998, and named chair by President Clinton. His recess appointment was due to expire in August 1999 when the Senate recessed, but he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on November 19, 1999. Truesdale said his only goal as chair would be to reduce the amount of time the Board took to issue a decision. Truesdale's term of office was due to expire on August 27, 2003, but he said that he would step down as chair once a new President was inaugurated in 2001.
During his tenure as chair, the Washington Post reported, Truesdale helped eliminate a severe backlog of cases. When Truesdale's term began, the Board had about 700 cases pending. James A. Gross
James A. Gross
James A. Gross is an American educator and historian who teaches United States labor law and labor history at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations...
, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, said in 2011 that eliminating the case backlog and shortening the time between a case's initial filing and its resolution was Truesdale's major accomplishment as chair. True to his position taken during the baseball strike controversy, Truesdale also largely kept the NLRB out of the news media. Ex-chairman Gould alleged that the Truesdale Board failed to issue decisions on many of the policy issues which the Gould Board had been considering, and that the Truesdale Board declined to issue 10(j) injunctions. However, Daily Labor Report (an independent publication which monitors federal labor policy and the NLRB) said that Board members felt the NLRB was much more collegial under Truesdale.
Truesdale's term as chair of the NLRB lasted just over two years, and during that time the Board neither overturned much precedent nor generated new doctrine. However, in late February 200, the Board did decertify the Major League Umpires Association and certified the World Umpires Association
World Umpires Association
The World Umpires Association is an organization of Major League Baseball umpires. It was certified by the National Labor Relations Board on February 24, 2000 as a bargaining agent. It took over as bargaining agent for MLB umpires before the 2000 MLB season, replacing the Major League Umpires...
as the new union for umpires
Umpire (baseball)
In baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. Truesdale wrote the three-paragraph opinion certifying the new union. The Board also issued two important rulings in October and November 2000. The first, New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000), found that graduate student teaching and research assistants at private colleges and universities were employees as defined by the NLRA
Graduate student unionization
Graduate student employee unionization refers to labor unions that represent students who are employed by their college or university to teach classes, conduct research and perform clerical duties. As of 2007 there are 28 graduate student employee local unions in the United States. and 21 local...
. Truesdale convinced Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Member Peter J. Hurtgen to join himself and Member Wilma B. Liebman
Wilma B. Liebman
Wilma B. Liebman is an American lawyer and civil servant who is best known for serving as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board . She was designated Chair of the Board by President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, becoming only the second woman to lead the NLRB.-Early life and...
in relying on Boston Medical Center, 330 NLRB 152 (1999) (which reversed precedent and found medical interns and residents to be employees) to find the graduate students to be employees. The same day, in NYP Acquisition Corp., 332 NLRB 1041 (2000), Truesdale convinced Member Sarah Fox to join himself and Hurtgen in significantly modifying the Board's successorship rulings. Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
bought the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
in 1976. When News Corp. purchased a New York City television station in 1988, federal regulators required Murdoch to sell the Post. The new publisher went bankrupt in 1991, and News Corp. purchase the paper again in 1993. The New York Post subsequently laid off large numbers of union workers. With the NLRB only at three members due to resignations and delayed confirmations, Truesdale and Hurtgen joined to alter the Board's successorship test by concluding that the subsidiary News Corp. used to buy the paper in 1993 was sufficiently different from the 1976 News Corp. subsidiary and with sufficiently different goals that it did not trigger the Board's successorship duty-to-bargain requirements.
But in the waning months of the Clinton administration, Truesdale led the Board in making two major new rulings. The first came in M.B. Sturgis, Inc., 331 NLRB 1298 (2000), in which the Board overturned long-standing precedent and permitted temporary workers to unionize. And in Epilepsy Foundation of Northeast Ohio, 331 NLRB 676 (2000), the Board extended the right to have a worker representative present during disciplinary hearings to nonunion employees.
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
won the 2000 U.S. presidential election, and Truesdale signaled that he would resign his seat on the Board in order to permit Bush to appoint his own chairperson. But there was concern that if Truesdale stepped down right away, the Board would lack a quorum until such time as the Senate confirmed Bush's new appointees. Subsequently, Truesdale delayed his resignation from the NLRB. As Bush's nominee for chair, Peter Hurtgen, was confirmed on May 15, 2001, but Truesdale remained on the Board to help the agency maintain its quorum. As his tenure as chair came to a close, Truesdale publicly urged Hurtgen and future NLRB chairs to look hard at existing precedent to ensure Board decisions met the needs of the modern workplace and to continue to keep the backlog of cases low.
Truesdale resigned as chair of the NLRB on May 14, 2001, but remained on the Board until resigning on October 1, 2001.
Rene Alexander Acosta was nominated on October 9, 2001, as Truesdale's replacement on the Board. Acosta was confirmed on November 22, 2002, for Truesdale's unexpired term that ended on August 27, 2003.
Retirement and death
Truesdale had kind words for his successor, Peter J. Hurtgen. "He's not an ideologue," Truesdale said in October 2002. "He came from a management background, and I guess he himself would tell you he was a conservative Republican and a management-oriented person. But he was always very fair."Although he was 78 years old when he left the NLRB in 1998, Truesdale continued to work as an arbitrator—and continued to make headlines. One such ruled came in the Banita Jacks
Banita Jacks
Banita Jacks is a Washington, DC resident convicted of murdering her four daughters, who ranged in age from 5 to 17 years old. On July 29, 2009, Jacks was convicted of the felony murder of all four girls, as well as child cruelty towards all four girls and first-degree murder of the younger three...
case. In 2008, Jacks was found guilty of starving and then murdering her four children (aged 5 to 16). Four days after the bodies were found, District of Columbia Mayor
Mayor of the District of Columbia
The Mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of Washington, D.C. The Mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Council of the District of Columbia...
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
fired six employees of Washington's Child and Family Services Agency, saying they "just didn't do their job." Three of the social workers filed grievances with the city. Truesdale was assigned to the case as an arbitrator. In September 2008, Truesdale issued an opinion in which he ruled that all three had been illegally terminated. Truesdale ordered the city to rehire the social workers at the same pay and benefit grades, expunge the incident from their personnel records, and give them back pay (with interest) and benefits for the period while they were terminated.
Another case involved the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
The Metropolitan Police Department, also known as the DC Police, DCPD, MPD, and MPDC is the municipal police force in Washington, D.C...
(MPD). In 2007, newly-appointed MPD Chief of Police
Chief of police
A Chief of Police is the title typically given to the top official in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. Alternate titles for this position include Commissioner, Superintendent, and Chief constable...
Cathy L. Lanier announced the "All Hands on Deck" policy, in which all 4,000 MPD officers worked for three straight days to patrol high-crime neighborhoods and execute arrest warrants. Several "All Hands on Deck" periods occurred in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The Fraternal Order of Police
Fraternal Order of Police
The Fraternal Order of Police is an organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It claims a membership of over 325,000 members organized in 2100 local chapters , organized into local lodges, state lodges, and the national Grand Lodge...
(FOP), a labor union representing police officers in the District of Columbia, filed six to 10 grievances over the practice, claiming it violated the collective bargaining agreement and broke D.C. law. In September 2009, Truesdale filed an arbitrator's report in which he held that the MPD forced officers to change vacation days and tours of duty in violation of the union contract, failed to bargain with the FOP over these unilateral contract changes, and ordered the city to halt the "All Hands on Deck" initiative. He also ordered the MPD to pay overtime (with interest) to those officers who worked extra shifts. Lanier said would appeal the ruling to the Public Employee Relations Board and the courts.
Truesdale moved from his home in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, to an assisted living
Assisted living
Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...
facility in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, in 2005. In early 2010, he moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
, to be closer to family members. He passed away at West Virginia University Hospitals East-City Hospital
West Virginia University Hospitals
West Virginia University Hospitals is a not-for-profit corporation operating the teaching hospitals of West Virginia University.The hospitals include Ruby Memorial Hospital, WVU Children’s Hospital, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center and Chestnut Ridge Center...
from cancer on July 3, 2010. He was survived by his wife and four children. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
Awards, memberships, and honors
John C. Truesdale was a member of the American Bar AssociationAmerican Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
, Maryland Bar Association, and District of Columbia Bar Association. He was also a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a professional association of labor and employment law lawyers which promotes the practice of labor and employment law and honors outstanding achievement in these fields.
Truesdale was a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Labor Relations Agencies from 1983 to 1995, and served as the organization's president from 1992 to 1993. He was a long-time member of the D.C. chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association
Labor and Employment Relations Association
The Labor and Employment Relations Association, founded in 1947, as the Industrial Relations Research Association, is an organization for professionals in industrial relations and human resources. Headquartered at the at the , the national organization has more than 3,000 members...
, and was the association's president in 1989.
Truesdale was a well-known arbitrator, and he worked for the American Arbitration Association
American Arbitration Association
The American Arbitration Association is a private enterprise in the business of arbitration, and one of several arbitration organizations that administers arbitration proceedings. The AAA also administers mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. It is headquartered in New York...
, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, National Mediation Board
National Mediation Board
The National Mediation Board is an independent agency of the United States government that coordinates labor-management relations within the U.S...
, and Oregon Employment Relations Board. He also served for a time as a member of the Foreign Service Grievance Board.
In 1988, Truesdale was awarded the President's Rank Award for Meritorious Executives, the second-highest annual award given to members of the Senior Executive Service in the U.S. federal government.
External links
- National Labor Relations Board
- NLRB oral history interview with John Truesdale
- "Reflections of Collingwood Harris, Radarman Second Class, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve." Operational, Technical and Maritime History Preservation Series. U.S. Coast Guard Oral History Program. October 18, 1984. – Oral history which includes statements about Truesdale's Coast Guard service