Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. NLRB, No. 12011.
Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) |
Writing for the Court | BRYAN, CRAVEN, and BUTZNER, Circuit |
Citation | 401 F.2d 205 |
Parties | CAROLINE FARMS DIVISION OF TEXTRON, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. |
Docket Number | No. 12011. |
Decision Date | 13 September 1968 |
401 F.2d 205 (1968)
CAROLINE FARMS DIVISION OF TEXTRON, INC., Petitioner,
v.
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
No. 12011.
United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.
Argued May 7, 1968.
Decided September 13, 1968.
Robert E. Williams, Atty., N.L.R.B. (Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Paul J. Spielberg, Attys., N.L. R.B., on brief) for respondent.
Before BRYAN, CRAVEN, and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges.
BUTZNER, Circuit Judge:
These petitions raise the question of whether substantial evidence on the record as a whole supports the National Labor Relations Board's finding that Caroline Farms violated §§ 8(a) (5) and (1) of the Act1 by refusing to bargain in good faith with a union2 that had been certified as a representative of its employees at its feed mill. The Board rested its decision3 on the totality of the company's conduct following a strike in September 1965. It found the company's rejection of provisions of the bargaining agreement to which it had agreed before the strike, when considered with other conduct, evidenced a determination to go through the motions of collective bargaining without a bona fide intention to reach an agreement. The Board emphasized: (1) the company's avoidance of bargaining sessions between September 22 and December 6; (2) the company's abrogation on December 20 of its agreement of December 6 to provide the union with a written proposal; and (3) the company's refusal to consider granting any form of union security and its insistence upon a no-strike clause while rejecting any form of binding arbitration, although before the strike it had reached agreement with the union on these issues.
We agree with the Board that the charges against the company must be viewed in the context of its total conduct, NLRB v. Reed & Prince Mfg. Co., 205 F.2d 131, 134 (1st Cir. 1953), cert. denied, 346 U.S. 887, 74 S.Ct. 139, 98 L.Ed. 391 (1953), but we find, after considering the record as a whole, that the Board's order is not supported by substantial evidence.
I.
Caroline operates an integrated poultry business, including a hatchery, feed mill, and processing plants on the Delmarva peninsula. After a representational election conducted among the employees at the feed mill, the union was certified in May 1965 as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees. In August, after four routine bargaining sessions in which both sides made concessions, the company and the union reached an agreement. Aside from wage rates, shift differentials, and other matters of a local nature, the contract was based on the industry's Master Poultry Agreement, which was in effect at the company's processing plants. The master agreement contained a provision for compulsory arbitration of grievances, a no-strike clause, and a union security clause with dues checkoff. Although
On September 11, union and company negotiators again met, and the company offered a new wage proposal, which the union rejected. The union submitted a counter proposal and announced that if the company did not respond to this by the following Monday, September 13, a picket line would be established on Tuesday morning. The company replied that it could not give its answer until Wednesday, September 15, because its top management was out of town. On Tuesday, September 14, the union struck the company's mill, and the next day the company stated that the union's proposal was not acceptable.
On September 22, a union representative called the company's industrial relations director for an immediate meeting. They met that evening, and after the union was unable to secure improvements in the company's last wage offer, it agreed to accept the offer as a basis for settling the strike. It was also agreed that a holiday would count as overtime except when the holiday fell on Saturday. These were the only agreements reached at the meeting. The parties recognized that other issues would have to be negotiated, but they now differ about who were to be the negotiators. The union contends the matter was left to lawyers representing the company and the union, who were expected to follow the Master Poultry Agreement. The company contends that it made clear its position that all proposals would have to be worked out through its director of industrial relations.
Although the contract was not completed, the strike ended on September 23, and the employees returned to work at the wage rate agreed upon at the meeting the day before. On several occasions thereafter the attorney for the union called the attorney for the company in unsuccessful efforts to arrange a meeting to complete the contract. The union's attorney testified that the company's attorney said that he had been unable to contact the company and that he suspected he "might be getting ducked by his client."
On October 18, the union filed a charge with the Board alleging that the company had refused to bargain. On November 18, 1965, the union's attorney wrote the company's director of industrial relations asserting that it was the union's understanding that the wage items having been settled, the attorneys for the parties were to draft a contract along the lines of the Master Poultry Agreement. The company replied on November 24 that the union's position was not accurate, that the company had made it clear at the conclusion of the September 22 session that all items not agreed to at that time remained open for negotiation.4 After this exchange of correspondence, a bargaining session was arranged for December 6.
To establish that the lapse of bargaining between September 22 and December 6 showed bad faith, the Board relied primarily upon the hearsay testimony that the company was avoiding its own attorney to delay bargaining. This testimony was contradicted. The company's director of industrial relations denied that the company avoided its attorney. He testified that two days after the strike was settled he talked with the attorney and also that he returned a call from the attorney received before the unfair labor charge was filed in October, only to find the attorney out of town. In any event, when union dissatisfaction with the course of the bargaining was made known to the company, it discharged its attorney and arranged bargaining sessions. On no other occasion has it...
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...Stores Co. v. N.L.R.B., 402 F.2d 525 (9th Cir.); union security and dues checkoff, Caroline Farms Division, Textron, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 205 (4th Cir.); Christmas bonus, Beacon Journal Publishing Co. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 366 (6th Cir.); effects of plant relocation, N.L.R.B. v. Die S......
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SIGN AND PICTORIAL U. LOCAL 1175, B. OF P., D. & P. v. NLRB, No. 22274.
...and acted on that offer under the changed circumstances following the strike. Cf. Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 205, 211 (C.A. 4, 1968). Since the new benefit conferred after the strike was not more favorable to the employees than the offers which the Compan......
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Glomac Plastics, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., AFL-CI
...the Company's position on this issue was not taken in order to thwart agreement. Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 401 F.2d 205, 210-11 (4th Cir. 1968). The subsequent withdrawal by the Company of the maintenance-of-membership offer and the refusal to reinstate that p......
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Axelson, Inc., Subsidiary of U.S.A. Industries, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., No. 78-1232
...F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1976); Sweeney & Co. v. NLRB, 437 F.2d 1127 (5th Cir. 1971); Accord Caroline Farm Div. of Textron, Inc. v. NLRB, 401 F.2d 205 (4th Cir. It is clear from a perusal of these cases that the issues qualifying as mandatory subjects of bargaining are very diverse. However,......
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West Hartford Ed. Ass'n v. Dayson DeCourcy
...Stores Co. v. N.L.R.B., 402 F.2d 525 (9th Cir.); union security and dues checkoff, Caroline Farms Division, Textron, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 205 (4th Cir.); Christmas bonus, Beacon Journal Publishing Co. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 366 (6th Cir.); effects of plant relocation, N.L.R.B. v. Die S......
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SIGN AND PICTORIAL U. LOCAL 1175, B. OF P., D. & P. v. NLRB, No. 22274.
...and acted on that offer under the changed circumstances following the strike. Cf. Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 205, 211 (C.A. 4, 1968). Since the new benefit conferred after the strike was not more favorable to the employees than the offers which the Compan......
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Glomac Plastics, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., AFL-CI
...the Company's position on this issue was not taken in order to thwart agreement. Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 401 F.2d 205, 210-11 (4th Cir. 1968). The subsequent withdrawal by the Company of the maintenance-of-membership offer and the refusal to reinstate that p......
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Axelson, Inc., Subsidiary of U.S.A. Industries, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., No. 78-1232
...F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1976); Sweeney & Co. v. NLRB, 437 F.2d 1127 (5th Cir. 1971); Accord Caroline Farm Div. of Textron, Inc. v. NLRB, 401 F.2d 205 (4th Cir. It is clear from a perusal of these cases that the issues qualifying as mandatory subjects of bargaining are very diverse. However,......