Bilton Insulation, Inc. v. NLRB

• Decision Date: 09 December 1961
• Docket Number: No. 8315.,8315.
• Citation: 297 F.2d 141
• Parties: BILTON INSULATION, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

297 F.2d 141 (1961)

BILTON INSULATION, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 8315.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued October 5, 1961.

Decided December 9, 1961.

Henry St. J. FitzGerald, Alexandria, Va. (C. Wynne Tolbert and Tolbert, Lewis & FitzGerald, Arlington, Va., on the brief), for petitioner.

Morton Namrow, Atty., N. L. R. B. Washington, D. C. (Stuart Rothman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Samuel M. Singer, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., on the brief), for respondent.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, and SOPER and BRYAN, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This case comes before the court upon the petition of Bilton Insulation, Inc. to review and set aside an order of the National Labor Relations Board issued in a proceeding in which United Construction Workers, Division of District 50, United Mine Workers of America, charged the Company with unfair labor practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.

Bilton Insulation, Inc. is a Virginia corporation which has a plant in Arlington, Virginia, where it is engaged in the business of supplying insulation in houses and employs 30 skilled and unskilled workers exclusive of clerical workers and professional supervisory employees. In August and September 1959 the Union engaged in organization activities at the plant and by September 17 had secured authorization cards from 24 of the 30 workers designating the Union as their bargaining representative. On that day O. B. Allen, the Union organizer, went to the office of Adolph Bilton, the Company's president, in order to secure recognition of the Union. What took place in the conference between the two men was the subject of dispute in the testimony given by them at the trial of the charges before an examiner. Allen testified that he informed Bilton that the majority of the employees had signed union cards and requested that the Company recognize the Union and enter into negotiations with it; but Bilton refused and said he would liquidate the business rather than recognize the Union and after a few minutes Allen left. Bilton on his part denied that Allen told him that a majority of the men had signed for the Union or that he had any dealings with them but only that he would like to organize a union; and aside from that the talk between them consisted of Bilton's explaining that he himself had been a union man and believed in unions but that he could not compete successfully and would be forced out of business if the business was unionized, to which Allen replied that he had heard that kind of talk before whereupon Bilton ordered him out of the office. The examiner who heard the evidence accepted Allen's version of the meeting as correct and his finding was expressly adopted by the Board. Since this finding was supported not only by Allen's explicit testimony but by inferences that may fairly be drawn from Bilton's subsequent conduct, the Board's conclusion is binding upon this court.

The story of the subsequent events is in the main undisputed. On September 22 the Union filed a petition with the Board for an election, supported by authorization cards signed by 24 employees, and sent a copy of the petition to the company, as well as a letter wherein the Union demanded recognition as the bargaining representative of the workers. This letter was received by the Company on September 23rd but was ignored. On the morning of that day nearly all of the employees who had joined the Union appeared wearing union buttons when they reported to work. The general manager ordered the workers to remove the buttons if anyone wanted to work but after some dispute it was arranged that the matter would be discussed later in the day and some of the workers continued to wear the buttons. Hearing of this event Allen went to the plant to be present at the meeting.

Meanwhile Bilton, realizing from the button episode that the men had some arrangement with the Union, left the plant and spent a large part of the afternoon in conference with his lawyer to familiarize himself with the legal aspects of the case. Returning to the plant late in the afternoon he found Allen on the premises and peremptorily ordered him to leave and sent for the police. After Allen left Bilton was given the Union letter of September 22. (The copy of the Union petition for an election was received the next day.) Thereupon he and his general manager and his superintendent had a conference with the workers in which Bilton told them that it was their privilege to join or not to join the Union but if they joined and he was compelled to grant very many additional benefits to them he would be forced out of business by his competitors. (The Board held that Bilton was within his rights in making this statement.) It was then decided that Bilton would meet at a later date with a committee of the workers which had previously been appointed to present their problems to the management.

This meeting was held on September 26 at which various working conditions were discussed and agreements between the management and the men were reached with respect to an increase in the rate of pay, additional compensation for difficult assignments, vacations with pay and other benefits, all of which were put into effect...