National Labor Rel. Board v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co.

• Decision Date: 13 February 1945
• Docket Number: No. 9710.,9710.
• Citation: 147 F.2d 262
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. MT. CLEMENS POTTERY CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

147 F.2d 262 (1945)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. MT. CLEMENS POTTERY CO.

No. 9710.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

February 13, 1945.

Joseph B. Robison, of Washington, D. C. (Alvin J. Rockwell, Malcolm F. Halliday, and David Findling, all of Washington, D. C., and Herman Lazarus, of Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for petitioner.

Bert V. Nunneley, of Mt. Clemens, Mich., and Percy J. Donovan, of Detroit, Mich., for respondent and intervenor.

Beaumont, Smith & Harris, Albert E. Meder, and Percy J. Donovan, all of Detroit, Mich., and Bert V. Nunneley, of Mt. Clemens, Mich., on the brief, for respondent.

Kenneth J. Logan and Maxton R. Valois, both of River Rouge, Mich., on the brief, for intervenor.

Before SIMONS, HAMILTON, and McALLISTER, Circuit Judges.

SIMONS, Circuit Judge.

The respondent is engaged in the manufacture of dinnerware at Mt. Clemens, Michigan, with approximately 750 employees. In August, 1940, the United Pottery Workers, a labor organization affiliated with the C.I.O., initiated a campaign to organize its employees and obtained some members. An affiliate of the A.F. of L. likewise undertook to organize the plant, but met with little response and is not in the present controversy. On October 3 and 4, Doll, president of respondent, held meetings of all of its employees and read to them a prepared statement to the effect that they would be better off if they did not join the union, without specifying which union was meant. About this time Harms, a foreman, inquired of some of the workers whether Lillian Socia, a C.I.O. member, had been talking for the Union in the plant, and late in January, told Burgess, an employee who had attended a C. I.O. meeting, that the employees had always got along without an outside organization. In February, 1941, Doll posted a notice stating that wages and other questions of employment were matters to be adjusted strictly between employer and employee, that any statement that a worker would have to join a union to hold his job, was false, and requesting employees to report instances of coercion or intimidation, although there is no proof that such threats had been made.

In April, 1941, when the first strike occurred, Copeland, another foreman, was asked by an employee what the respondent would do with the hand dippers who were being replaced by new machines, and replied, "If they don't stop bringing in the union we will have a lot more machines in." Two foremen called upon the employee Dupont and intimated to him that there were good promotional jobs open, and foreman Randolph asked a picket why he didn't take his problems to Doll instead of airing them with "those fellows in Detroit." Likewise during the strike the respondent sent letters to its employees stating "it would be futile to resume operations except under conditions that will make impossible a repetition of Monday's walkout or any other suspension of operations." A ballot was enclosed on which the workers were asked to indicate whether they approved of the strike or whether they wanted to return to work, but the ballots were never opened. Upon the basis of these circumstances, established by evidence credited by the Board, the Board found that the respondent had "interfered with, restrained, and coerced" its employees in violation of § 8(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(1) and issued a cease and desist order with affirmative directives for which it now seeks enforcement.

We are not presented with any issue in respect to the right of the employer to freely express his views on unionization of his employees, as in National Labor Relations Board v. Ford Motor Co., 6 Cir., 114 F.2d 905, 914, and Midland Steel Products Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 6 Cir., 113 F.2d 800, and have no occasion to apply the doctrine of Thornhill v. State of Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 102, 60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093, or American Federation of Labor v. Swing, 312 U.S. 321, 325, 61 S.Ct. 568, 85 L.Ed. 855, for the reason that the Board made no finding that Doll's expression of his views on unionization was an unfair labor practice on the part of the respondent, nor is he restrained from expressing his opinions by the terms of the cease and desist order. Such views, however, become important in determining whether employees have reasonable ground to believe that supervisors, in discouraging unionization or interfering in any way with their free choice of a bargaining agency, represent the views of management. The test is not objective, but subjective, from the standpoint of employees. National Labor Relations Board v. Thompson Products, 6 Cir., 130 Fed.2d 363, 368.

While some of the incidents might to us seem unimportant and as having little coercive effect upon the free choice of the employees, there was room for an inference that the respondent had unlawfully interfered with their organizational activities. Certainly the statement of Copeland that if unionization persisted more hand dippers would be replaced by machines, was coercive. It could reasonably be inferred that the proposal to put Dupont into a better job was to discourage his activity in the union, and that there was implicit a threat to suspend operations in Doll's letter to the workers during the strike. Such inferences are for the Board and not for the court, as we have recently observed in National Labor Relations Board v. American Creosoting Co., Inc., 139 F.2d 193, where controlling authority is fully cited. We are compelled to sustain the findings of the Board that the respondent had interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees in violation of § 8 (1), and to sustain its order requiring it to cease and desist from such practices.

The Board also found that the respondent was instrumental in the formation of the Pottery Workers Co-operative, an unaffiliated labor organization of its employees with which it had bargained and now has a contract. The order requires it to cease dominating or interfering with the Co-operative, recognizing it as the representative of its employees, or giving effect to its contract, and directs that it withdraw recognition from and disestablish the Co-operative as such representative. The Board found that late in February or early in March, 1941, while organization efforts were being pursued by the United, a suggestion for an inside union was made to some of the respondent's employees by its foreman Parrott, and that thereafter, on April 11, two employees in the clay department, undertook to circulate petitions to that end among the employees for the purpose of forming a shop union to bargain collectively with management. They took time off for that purpose. Within half an hour thereafter their activities came to the attention of Doll who then had them collect all of the petitions and destroy them in his presence. Meanwhile, an entirely separate organization was started which became the Co-operative. There is no evidence that those who started it were in any way under company control. Some assistance was, however, given to it by the son of the plant superintendent, and Crothers, a foreman, attended an organizational meeting, though he took no part. The next day, however, Crothers gave orders that no more cards were to be passed out in the plant because Doll had said it was against the law. However, on April 14, the day the first strike started, an employee, Sopha, at the home of his foreman Fitton, was given a Co-operative application by Fitton's sister-in-law. Organization proceeded rapidly during the strike, and on April 18, Reese, the Co-operative's attorney, wrote to Doll claiming a majority, requesting a meeting of all parties, and a consent election. Doll had previously refused to meet the C.I.O. representatives, but he now met with representatives of both Unions at the office of a state labor conciliator. During the meeting the C.I. O. director claimed a majority of respondent's employees, but made no offer of proof and refused to consent to any election to which the Co-operative was a party. The Co-operative's lawyer then demanded a check of the Co-operative's membership cards by an impartial umpire. That check was made on May 1 and 2, with a report that the Co-operative had 58% of the employees. The respondent thereupon opened bargaining negotiations with the Co-operative on May 5, and on May 7 a contract was signed. On November 24 the C.I.O. called another strike, but the plant remained open. The night before the strike some 25 or 35 employees, members of the Co-operative, stayed all night in the plant with foremen and officials, and in the morning tried to break the picket line which blocked the entrances, and a fight resulted. During the strike Starner, a foreman, told a striker that he had helped him get his job and that in striking he had put Starner in bad with Doll, and praised the...