Atlas Underwear Co. v. National Labor Relations Bd., 8568.
| Decision Date | 15 January 1941 |
| Docket Number | No. 8568.,8568. |
| Parties | ATLAS UNDERWEAR CO. v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Paul Y. Davis, of Indianapolis, Ind. (Paul Y. Davis and Davis, Pantzer, Baltzell & Sparks, all of Indianapolis, Ind., on the brief), for petitioner.
Frederick P. Mett, of Washington, D. C. (Robert B. Watts, Laurence A. Knapp, Lewis M. Gill, William J. Isaacson, and Frederick P. Mett, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for respondent.
Before HICKS, SIMONS, and ALLEN, Circuit Judges.
The cease and desist order of the respondent, issued upon charges filed by the Textile Workers Organizing Committee, now known as the Textile Workers Union of America, affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization, is brought here for review with the prayer that it be set aside because it is in response to findings which are not based upon substantial evidence. The respondent, in reply, prays for a decree of enforcement.
The petitioner is an Ohio corporation with a plant at Piqua where it manufactures and sells underwear, and the like, receiving much of its raw materials from without the state and shipping its finished products to other states. Jurisdiction is admitted. The Textile Workers Union of America, Local No. 187, is a labor organization having membership among the petitioner's employees, including clerical and office employees as well as those engaged in production and maintenance. Federated Industrial Union No. 210 is likewise a labor organization with membership in the petitioner's plant.
The challenged order commands that the petitioner cease and desist from dominating and interfering with the administration of F. I. U. or other labor organizations of its employees, and from contributing to their support. It directs discontinuance of espionage or surveillance, interference, restraint or coercion of the petitioner's employees, in the exercise of their rights to self-organization. It also requires, as affirmative action, that the petitioner withdraw all recognition from F. I. U. as the representative of its Piqua plant employees for purposes of collective bargaining, its disestablishment as such representative, and the posting of the usual notices.
The Board took cognizance of the attitude of the petitioner prior to the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and prior to the events which led to charges presented to the Board, as aids to determination whether, in purpose and expected result, the several activities of the petitioner constituted unfair labor practices. It found that in 1934 when the United Textile Workers, then affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, was being established in the Piqua plant, the petitioner, through its executive officers, called a meeting of its employees during working hours and urged that if a union was desirable, a company union should be established, and some weeks later placed in the pay envelope of each employee, a statement of its opposition to organization and particularly to outside unions. As a result, the organizing effort among its employees "died down." In the spring of 1936, unionization activities were revived upon the arrival of an A. F. of L. organizer and a proposed contract was presented to the petitioner. It was not agreed to, because, according to the petitioner, it conceived that the union did not represent a majority of its employees. A strike followed, — subsequently settled. The petitioner then circulated among its employees a statement with the enclosure of a projected newspaper advertisement addressed to them, reciting that the T. W. U. had failed to organize a majority of the workers. It threatened to close its plant, for the reason that it was unwilling to continue an investment in a business governed "not by sane, conservative management, but by mob rule."
The Board also found that shortly after August 1, 1935, the petitioner employed a private detective agency, and that one of its operatives entered the plant ostensibly as a production worker and made periodic reports of union activity to its...
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