Beaver Valley Canning Company v. NLRB

• Decision Date: 26 June 1964
• Docket Number: No. 17469.,17469.
• Citation: 332 F.2d 429
• Parties: BEAVER VALLEY CANNING COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

332 F.2d 429 (1964)

BEAVER VALLEY CANNING COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 17469.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

June 1, 1964.

Rehearing Denied June 26, 1964.

Neill Garrett, of Gibson, Stewart & Garrett, Des Moines, Iowa, made argument for the petitioner and filed brief.

William J. Avrutis, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., made argument for the respondent and filed brief with Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Assistant Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., and Melvin Pollack, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C.

Before VAN OOSTERHOUT, RIDGE and MEHAFFY, Circuit Judges.

MEHAFFY, Circuit Judge.

Beaver Valley Canning Company petitions this Court to review and set aside an order of a three member panel of the National Labor Relations Board issued against petitioner pursuant to § 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act as amended (61 Stat. 136, 73 Stat. 519, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.). The Board adopted its Trial Examiner's findings and recommended order and seeks enforcement thereof in answer to this petition.

The Board found that the Company unlawfully: (1) laid off seven employees for engaging in labor organizational activities; (2) interrogated one employee concerning other employees' sympathies towards a labor organization; and (3) granted a general wage increase to discourage its employees' support thereof, which interfered with, restrained and coerced employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights, in violation of §§ 8(a) (1) and 8(a) (3) of the Act.

The labor organization involved is the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO. Beaver Valley Canning Company is an Iowa corporation with its sole place of business in a small, Iowa town of less than 1,000 population. Its work force consists of approximately 50 employees who are engaged in the processing and canning of fresh corn and other commodities.

On October 30, 1962, the Company laid off employees Jackson, Hertz, Marchant, Moore, Morris, Rosenstock, Wood and Hays, giving as its reason the withdrawal from its production line on that same day of a malfunctioning, high speed, canning machine or "filler" which was immediately returned to the manufacturer for re-engineering and repair. The Company maintained that substitution of an older, slower machine while the high speed filler was being repaired reduced production, creating the necessity for the layoff.¹ On Sunday evening, October 28, 1962, two days before the equipment change and layoff the following Tuesday, employee Moore, one of the employees laid off, held a union organizational meeting at her home attended by seven employees in all. The eight employees originally laid off included five in attendance at this meeting. On November 30, 1962 the Union filed a petition with the NLRB for a representation election of which the Company was duly notified. Thereafter, on December 12, 1962, all employees received in their pay envelopes a five cent per hour increase effective from the beginning of the preceding two week pay period. On January 3, 1963, a representation hearing was conducted by the NLRB, but adjourned upon the Company's agreement to a consent election. The Union later withdrew its election petition and on January 15, 1963, filed unfair labor practice charges.

In view of petitioner's primary contention that the evidence belies the Board's findings, this appeal necessitates our careful reappraisal of the record as a whole to determine whether substantial supportive evidence exists therefor in compliance with the Supreme Court's mandate in Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951).

§ 8(a) (3) — Layoffs

In the summer of 1962, prior to processing its fresh corn pack, the Company acquired and installed the high speed filler. This machine produced an average of four thousand cans per hour more than the old machine which it replaced. When the new machine developed serious trouble causing the Company to register a complaint with the manufacturer, return of the machine was impractical as the Company was in the midst of its heavy corn pack season. On the morning of October 30, 1962, a representative of the manufacturer called the Beaver Company's general manager, informing him that his company would reengineer and repair the machine, provided it could be promptly returned to the factory; otherwise, no definite date could be promised as other such machines were in the same condition and the factory would take them for correction in the order in which they were returned. By this time, the rush corn pack season was over, and the Company was experiencing its customary slack period. Accordingly, Beaver's general manager and plant manager decided the defective machine could be temporarily replaced and promptly accepted the manufacturer's offer. These management officials estimated that a more efficient operation could be maintained during the repair period with fewer employees. They canvassed the employee roster and selected eight employees, the seven alleged discriminatees plus employee Rosenstock, to be laid off on the basis of merit and essentiality to overall efficiency during the production cutback. All but one of the employees laid off worked in the warehousing department where the processed cans were labeled, cased, stored, and prepared for shipment.

After discussing organization of the Beaver plant with her husband, on officer in a local union and employed elsewhere, employee Moore had a petition surreptitiously circulated in the plant among her fellow employees, obtaining signatures of twelve co-employees interested in joining the Union. Subsequently, she held the unpublicized organizational meeting at her home. Testifying at the unfair labor practice hearing, Moore affirmed the fact that the meeting was a "quiet one" and that she contacted by telephone the attending employees without the Company's knowledge. All seven in attendance signed union cards but there is no direct evidence the Company was aware of their union activities. Five of this group were among those laid off two days later. The remaining three employees laid off did not attend the organizational meeting. All the supervisory staff of the Company testified that they had no knowledge whatsoever of any union activity in the plant at the time the decision to reduce the work force was made and implemented. There is no testimony to indicate the contrary.

Within a week after the layoff, employee Rosenstock requested and was recalled to work by the general manager Wright, because the Company was one employee short and took into consideration the facts that Rosenstock was a single woman who lived near the plant and had an efficient work record. Rosenstock had not attended the organizational meeting but had signed a union card, which she voluntarily instructed employee Moore to destroy, before contacting Wright at his home, asking for her job back and spontaneously assuring him she would not vote for the Union.

On December 21, 1962, some two months after the layoff and following the Company's receipt of notice of the election petition, employee Lockard, who was not laid off but had signed a union card, went to Wright's home and asked the general manager if her job was in jeopardy. He replied that she had nothing to fear so long as she performed her work satisfactorily, and that he knew "pretty well who was or was not involved in the union activity".

On January 4, 1963, Wright wrote a letter to all employees in response to Union propaganda, the gist of which stated that he was strongly opposed to petitioner's organizing the plant, but had agreed to an election to test the Union's claim of majority representation which the latter declined to accept by withdrawing its petition. It is not contended the Company's efforts at neutralization of the Union's campaign through this correspondence contained any statements independently violative of § 8(a) (1).

The novelty of this case lies in the lack of sharp conflict in the evidence but turns upon the inferences to be drawn therefrom.

The record evidence is undisputed that: (1) the high speed filler machine was installed in Beaver's plant in midsummer preceding the corn pack contrary to the Trial Examiner's finding it had been in operation only a few weeks prior to the layoff; (2) only one filler machine was ever used at any one time in the production line; (3) the high speed filler machine which proved defective handled approximately four thousand cans per hour...