National industrial conference board

The National Industrial Conference Board was established in 1916 by eleven of the United States' major trade associations. The employer representatives attending the NICB's founding convention were seeking to formulate a collective response to the industrial unrest of the World War I era. In its original statement of purpose the NICB claimed that it intended to work to maintain "harmonious relationships between employer and employees and between both labor and government." Even though many of NICB's founding members were affiliated with the "open shop movement" they were by 1916 willing to sit down with the American Federation of Labor and discuss issues of common concern. These included industrial safety, vocational training, and unemployment. The NICB was divided over the issue of union recognition and therefore avoided taking a position on collective bargaining. However, Magnus Alexander, the NICB's first president, who spent many years as a personnel officer with General Electric, believed that the trade union movement had become a permanent fixture in American life and that employers should attempt to increase their bargaining power by organizing themselves into trade associations and affiliating with organizations like the Conference Board.

The Conference Board operated on the basis of consensus and voluntary agreement. If a representative of a member trade association did not agree with the organization's stated positions, they were free to oppose them. The NICB was, therefore, able to embrace the twin banners of employer unity and labor reform. Beginning in 1916, the NICB began holding annual meetings which became known as Yama Conferences, since the first was held on the Yama farm in New York State's Catskill region. At these meetings, NICB members discussed economic and social issues of the day and attempted to develop a consensus which would define the organization's positions.

As part of this process the NICB's staff experts began to compile a number of economic and sociological reports on contemporary issues. Ther first of these, completed in 1917, focused on the structural weakness of the workmen's compensation laws and on health and social insurance. Over the years the NICB became a spokesman for the so-called progressive wing of the business community. As part of its ongoing function as a lobbying group and publicist for American business, it produced hundreds of research reports on economic and social issues facing the United States.

From the description of Records. 1916-1985. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 86134058