The Canada Labour Relations Board was created in 1948 as a separate entity, operating under the Industrial Relations and Disputes Investigation Act (11-12 George VI, c.54n.) and reporting to the Minister of Labour. Significantly restructured in 1972, the Board's current responsibilities under Parts IV and V of the Canada Labour Code are to certify unions in workplaces under federal jurisdiction, to provide mediation and conciliation services in labour disputes in those industries as well as to hear cases involving possible infractions of labour laws brought by unions and individual employees in federally regulated workplaces. In recent years, the Board has been hearing about 750 new cases per year. About 500,000 Canadians working in banking, transportation, airlines, shipping and grain terminals are currently covered by the Canada Labour Relations Board's operations. Directed by a chairman, vice-chairman, and a full-time board of up to eight members, the CLRB is independent from any other agency or ministry in its administration (R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2, s.9). The Board maintains five regional offices across Canada, in addition to its Ottawa headquarters.
The material in this accession consists of central registry files dating from 1959 to 1990. The records are case files documenting CLRB hearings on such matters as applications for review or amendment of Board orders (file blocks 530 and 773), applications for certification of bargaining agents (file blocks 555 and 766), and complaints alleging violation of the Canada Labour Code, Part 1 (file block 745).
Sound Recordings exist for twelve of the CLRB hearings documented in this accession. These sound recordings can be consulted in the Cartographic and Audio-Visual Archives Division (Audio-Visual Sector) of the National Archives of Canada. The finding aid for this accession lists those CLRB hearings for which the Archives have tape recordings.