Anchor Manufacturing Company v. NLRB

• Citation: 300 F.2d 301
• Decision Date: 30 March 1962
• Docket Number: No. 19019.,19019.
• Parties: ANCHOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Division of Basic Products Corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

300 F.2d 301 (1962)

ANCHOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, a Division of Basic Products Corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 19019.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

March 30, 1962.

Andrew P. Carter, New Orleans, La., Herbert P. Wiedemann, Milwaukee, Wis., for petitioner.

Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Warren M. Davison, Atty., Stuart Rothman, Gen. Counsel, Melvin J. Welles, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for respondent.

Before HUTCHESON, CAMERON and GEWIN, Circuit Judges.

JOSEPH C. HUTCHESON, Jr., Circuit Judge.

The case is before us upon petition of Anchor Manufacturing Company to review and set aside an order of the National Labor Relations Board and answering petition of the Board for enforcement in full. It is another of those increasingly-frequent cases in which an employer has, or thinks he has, objections to the conduct of a representation election and, in order to obtain judicial review of his contention, refuses to bargain with a certified union, thus violating Section 8(a) (5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S. C.A. § 158(a) (1, 5), and causing a Board order directing bargaining upon request to be issued.

The objections of Anchor to the election in this case are directed to campaign propaganda distributed by the Union, which, it is claimed, rendered the election so unfair as to require that it be set aside.

Anchor has two plants, one at Manchester, New Hampshire, and one at Bradenton, Florida. The Union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, is the certified bargaining representative at the Manchester plant. The election in controversy was at the Bradenton plant, and was conducted on May 17, 1960.

On April 27, 1960, the Union circulated a handbill among the Bradenton employees, asserting that although the parent organization (Basic Products Corporation) had authorized wage rates as high as $1.50 per hour, the plant manager, who was named, had kept the Bradenton rates at $1.00 per hour and would not raise them beyond $1.15 per hour. The handbill asked why the manager had "cut" wages, and stated "by his selfish act, he had robbed you for his own selfish gain".

On May 16, 1960, the day before the election, the Union circulated another handbill, orginated by the Union at the Manchester plant, which contained this assertion with respect to wage rates at the Manchester plant:

"The lowest pay here is $2.00 an hour (straight time) and goes up to $2.80. Men on Punch Press, for example, make $2.34 on Class A work and $2.23 Class B".

The transmittal letter on the reverse of the handbill, addressed to the Union organizer in Bradenton and signed by the Manchester Union President, stated among other things that when the handbill, which was signed on its face by approximately 123 Union members, had been circulated around the shop "it was enthusiastically signed by all that read it".

Finally, on May 17, 1960, the day of the election, the Union circulated among the employees at Bradenton a telegram from the Union president at Manchester, which stated:

"In response to your request concerning labor difficulties at Anchor Mfg. Co. Manchester NH we wish to emphatically state that relations between company and union has always been at a high point and remains that way anybody that states anything to the contrary is a plain liar there is no labor trouble at this time production for the first four months this year has been one of record production and all things point to a record production year the companys business has more than quadrupled since we employees joined the IBEW in 1949 referring to temporary layoff of nine employees this is strictly temporarily and those laid off should be recalled within four weeks sic".

On May 9, 1960, at a meeting of employees at the Bradenton plant, the executive vice-president of Basic Products Corporation, in reply to the Union handbill of April 27th, addressed the employees. Stating that Anchor was paying them what it thought they should be paid and that the company was in Bradenton in the interest of its employees, he also declared that the plant manager, contrary to the implications of the Union handbill, was a truthful and honest man.

The second handbill was distributed in the morning on May 16th. In the afternoon, the company held a one-hour meeting in which a representative of Anchor discussed the handbill with the employees in the unit. He particularly examined the wage rates asserted therein, and produced a copy of the Manchester contract, which he showed to the assembled employees in support of the company's contention that the Union had exaggerated the Manchester rates. In the course of this discussion, the company representative stated that the Manchester plant was experiencing various labor problems and that ten employees had been laid off recently.

Anchor argues that "where false statements about the employer's conduct are made by a union prior to a representation election, such statements constitute an interference with the free choice guaranteed to employees by the Act and the election should be set aside.", relying on National Labor Relations Board v. Trinity Steel Co., Inc., 214 F. 2d 120 (5th Cir. 1954), in support of this proposition. In so doing, petitioner reveals a basic misconception of the true principle involved, and of the principle of Trinity Steel, supra. That principle is not that when false statements are made they constitute an interference with free choice, but that when false statements are made which constitute an interference with free choice, for or against a bargaining representative, an election should be set aside. Thus, the basic issue is whether such false statements as may have been made in fact constituted an interference...