National Industrial Conference Board Coordinates Corporate Anti-Union Propaganda

The National Industrial Conference Board (NICB), founded in 1916, reaches peak influence during the 1920s as the research and propaganda arm of corporate America’s campaign against labor organizing. Working alongside the National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NICB produces studies, statistics, and policy recommendations designed to appear as objective social science while consistently serving anti-union and anti-regulation agendas. The organization exemplifies the professionalization of corporate propaganda, using the veneer of academic research to influence public policy and shape public opinion.

The NICB coordinates the “American Plan” open shop campaign, which by 1924 has broken union power in manufacturing across the country. The campaign rebrands anti-unionism as patriotism, casting closed shops as “un-American” while open shops represent freedom and individual rights. NICB research provides talking points for politicians, newspaper editorials, and civic groups. The organization publishes studies purporting to show that unions reduce productivity, increase costs, and harm workers themselves. These industry-funded studies are cited as independent research in legislative debates over labor law, workplace safety, and wage regulation.

The NICB model demonstrates how corporate interests create permanent infrastructure for policy influence. Unlike ad hoc lobbying, the Conference Board maintains ongoing research programs, policy networks, and media relationships that shape the boundaries of acceptable public discourse. It trains the next generation of business economists and public relations professionals in methods of manufacturing consent. The organization publishes influential economic indicators while producing policy studies consistently aligned with member corporations’ interests. The NICB establishes templates for industry-funded think tanks that proliferate after World War II, creating what will become the extensive network of corporate-funded policy institutes that dominate American policy discourse in subsequent decades.