Safeguarding the Supply Chain Act

All of the provisions of title I of this Act, except the provisions of section 3 thereof, are extended to and shall cover every maritime employer and every employee of a maritime employer, subject to its continuing authority to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of the employee’s service.

The duties, requirements, penalties, benefits, and privileges prescribed and established by the provisions of title I of this Act, except the provisions of section 3 thereof, shall apply to maritime employers and their employees in the same manner and to the same extent as though such maritime employers and their employees were specifically included within the definition of carrier and employee, respectively, in section 1 thereof.

The parties or either party to a dispute between an employee or a group of such employees and a maritime employer or employers may invoke the services of the National Mediation Board and the jurisdiction of the National Mediation Board is extended to any of the following cases:

(1) A dispute concerning changes in rates of pay, rules, or working conditions not adjusted by the parties in conference.

(2) Any other dispute not referable to an adjustment board, as described in section 304(b), and not adjusted in conference between the parties, or where conferences are refused.

The National Mediation Board may proffer its services in case any labor emergency is found by it to exist at any time.

The services of the National Mediation Board may be invoked in a case under this title in the same manner and to the same extent as are the disputes covered by section 5 of title I of this Act.

The disputes between an employee or a group of employees and a maritime employer or employers growing out of grievances, or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, including cases pending and unadjusted on the date of enactment of this title before the National Labor Relations Board, shall be handled in the usual manner up to and including the chief operating officer of the maritime employer designated to handle such disputes; but, failing to reach an adjustment in this manner, the disputes may be referred by petition of the parties or by either party to an appropriate adjustment board, as described in subsection (b), with a full statement of the facts and supporting data bearing upon the disputes.

It shall be the duty of every maritime employer and its employees, acting through their representatives, selected in accordance with the provisions of this title, to establish a board of adjustment of jurisdiction not exceeding the jurisdiction which may be lawfully exercised by system, group, or regional boards of adjustment, under the authority of section 3.

Such boards of adjustment may be established by agreement between employees and maritime employers either on any individual maritime employer, or system, or group of maritime employers and any class or classes of its or their employees; or pending the establishment of a permanent National Board of Adjustment in accordance with this title. Nothing in this Act shall prevent such maritime employers, or any class or classes of their employees, both acting through their representatives selected in accordance with provisions of this title, from mutually agreeing to the establishment of a national board of adjustment of temporary duration and of similarly limited jurisdiction.

When, in the judgment of the National Mediation Board, it shall be necessary to have a permanent National Board of Adjustment in order to provide for the prompt and orderly settlement of disputes between maritime employers and their employees, growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements between maritime employers and any class or classes of employees, covering rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, the National Mediation Board is hereby empowered and directed, by its order duly made, published, and served, to direct such maritime employers and such labor organizations of their employees, national in scope, as have been or may be recognized in accordance with the provisions of this Act, to select and designate four representatives who shall constitute a board which shall be known as the National Maritime Adjustment Board.

Two members of the National Maritime Adjustment Board shall be selected by maritime employers and two members by the labor organizations of the employees, within thirty days after the date of the order of the National Mediation Board, in the manner and by the procedure prescribed by title I of this Act for the selection and designation of members of the National Railroad Adjustment Board.

The National Maritime Adjustment Board shall meet within forty days after the date of the order of the National Mediation Board directing the selection and designation of its members and shall organize and adopt rules for conducting its proceedings, in the manner prescribed in section 3.

Vacancies in membership or office shall be filled, members shall be appointed in case of failure of the maritime employers or of labor organizations of the employees to select and designate representatives, members of the National Maritime Adjustment Board shall be compensated, hearings shall be held, findings and awards made, stated, served, and enforced, and the number and compensation of any necessary assistants shall be determined and the compensation of such employees shall be paid, all in the same manner and to the same extent as provided with reference to the National Railroad Adjustment Board by section 3.

The powers and duties prescribed and established by the provisions of section 3 with reference to the National Railroad Adjustment Board and the several divisions thereof are hereby conferred upon and shall be exercised and performed in like manner and to the same extent by the National Maritime Adjustment Board, not exceeding, however, the jurisdiction conferred upon the National Maritime Adjustment Board by the provisions of this title.

From and after the organization of the National Maritime Adjustment Board, if any system, group, or regional board of adjustment established by any maritime employer or employers and any class or classes of its or their employees is not satisfactory to either party thereto, such party, upon ninety days' notice to the other party, may elect to come under the jurisdiction of the National Maritime Adjustment Board.

All cases referred to the National Labor Relations Board, or over which the National Labor Relations Board shall have taken jurisdiction, involving any dispute arising from any cause between any maritime employer engaged in interstate or foreign commerce and employees of such maritime employer or employers, and unsettled on the date of enactment of this title, shall be handled to conclusion by the National Mediation Board. The books, records, and papers of the National Labor Relations Board pertinent to such case or cases, whether settled or unsettled, shall be transferred to the custody of the National Mediation Board.

There is hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for expenditure by the Mediation Board in carrying out the provisions of this Act.

In this title:

(1) The term maritime employer has the meaning given the term employer in section 2(4) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.

(2) The term employee has the meaning given such term in section 2(3) of such Act.