The Knights of Labor preferred arbitration for resolving interest differences
but was never able to use it. In 1925 Congress passed the Arbitration
Act establishing the right of parties to a contract to specify the processes
to be used to resolve disputes over the interpretation or implementation
of the contract. There is no legal requirement to arbitrate private sector
labor disputes. However, during World War TI the National War Labor
Board required that labor contracts provide for arbitration of intracontract
disputes.2 Beginning i.n 1957, NLRB and Supreme Court decisions have
defined and expanded the role of rights arbitration.