McLeod v. General Electric Company, 476

Decision Date08 September 1966
Docket NumberDocket 30752.,No. 476,476
PartiesIvan C. McLEOD, Regional Director of the Second Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on Behalf of the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner-Appellee, and International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO, Intervenor, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Respondent-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

David L. Benetar, New York City, (Thomas F. Hilbert, Jr., Herbert D. Schwartzman, Richard P. Lawlor, New York City, on the brief), for respondent-appellant.

Julius G. Serot, Asst. Gen. Counsel (Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel; Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, on the brief), for petitioner-appellee.

Ruth Weyand, Washington, D. C. (Irving Abramson, New York City, on the brief), for intervenor.

Gerard D. Reilly, Winthrop A. Johns, Lawrence T. Zimmerman, Washington, D. C., for Chamber of Commerce of United States and National Ass'n of Manufacturers of United States, amici curiae.

James W. Hunt, Washington, D. C., for Chamber of Commerce of United States, amicus curiae.

Lambert H. Miller, Washington, D. C., for the National Ass'n of Manufacturers of United States of America, amicus curiae.

Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and MOORE and KAUFMAN, Circuit Judges.

KAUFMAN, Circuit Judge:

The General Electric Company (GE) appeals from Judge Frankel's order granting a preliminary injunction under section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(j). The basic facts in the case are not in dispute and are set out in detail in the District Judge's opinion. 257 F.Supp. 690 (1966). Briefly, the General Electric Company has for years conducted separate collective bargaining negotiations with the over eighty labor unions representing its employees. For the most part these negotiations have been held at the local plant level, although nationwide bargaining has been conducted with three unions of which the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO (IUE) is the largest. In the past IUE has elected a General Electric Conference Board, which in turn elected a Negotiating Committee to bargain with GE. In 1965 the AFL-CIO formed a Committee on Collective Bargaining consisting of several unions whch bargain with GE. The Committee's avowed purpose was to evolve a set of national goals and to adopt a "coordinated approach" to the 1966 round of collective bargaining negotiations. A Steering Committee of the Committee on Collective Bargaining was formed, and beginning in November 1965 it attempted to meet with the company to discuss various contract issues. The company consistently refused to meet with or recognize the Steering Committee. In April the IUE Negotiating Committee in a letter to GE stated that it would no longer pursue its request for joint negotiations, and suggested a meeting with the company to discuss preliminary matters concerning the negotiation of a new agreement to replace the one due to expire in October 1966. GE agreed to meet on May 4. The meeting, however, was short-lived. When GE discovered that seven men on the Negotiating Committee were affiliated with other unions represented on the Steering Committee it refused to commence contract talks and left the conference room.1 Within a few days, both GE and the IUE filed unfair labor practice charges with the Board. Thereafter, the Regional Director of the Board issued a complaint that GE was engaging in an unfair labor practice and also, pursuant to section 10(j) of the Act, sought an injunction restraining the company from refusing to meet with the IUE's Negotiating Committee. After four days of hearings, Judge Frankel, sitting specially to hear the case, ordered a temporary injunction pending final disposition of the Board's complaint. His order, in part, restrained GE from "failing or refusing to meet, confer and bargain collectively in good faith with * * (IUE) * * * by declining to meet with the selected representatives of IUE * * * because of the presence of any representations of other unions from IUE * * * has invited to attend for the purpose of participating in the discussion and advising or consulting * * *."

It should be noted explicitly at the out-set that with our disposition of this case today we are not passing on the basic controversy between GE and the IUE which Judge Frankel correctly characterized as "the extent of IUE's right to designate such additional, non-voting members of its Negotiating Committee — or, conversely, of the Company's right to hold such designees unacceptable or impermissible." The only issue which we decide today is the propriety of the section 10(j) temporary injunction issued against the General Electric Company.

It is black-letter law that the issuance of an injunction is an extraordinary remedy indeed. This is especially true in the labor field where Congress by the Norris-LaGuardia Act deprived the federal courts of jurisdiction to issue injunctions in labor disputes. One exception to this almost blanket prohibition was carved out by Congress in section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act empowering the Board to seek in...

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    ...arising out of the 1966 negotiations. McLeod for and on Behalf of NLRB v. General Electric Co., 257 F.Supp. 690 (S.D.N.Y.), rev'd 366 F.2d 847 (2d Cir. 1966), remanded 385 U.S. 533, 87 S.Ct. 637, 17 L.Ed.2d 588 (1967). See also General Electric Co. v. NLRB, 412 F.2d 512 (2d Cir., June 9, II......
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