Meter v. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

• Decision Date: 06 September 1967
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 3-67-240.
• Citation: 273 F. Supp. 659
• Parties: Clarence A. METER, Regional Director of the Eighteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on Behalf of the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

273 F. Supp. 659

Clarence A. METER, Regional Director of the Eighteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on Behalf of the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. MINNESOTA MINING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Respondent.

Civ. No. 3-67-240.

United States District Court D. Minnesota, Third Division.

September 6, 1967.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

David R. Hols, Attorney for National Labor Relations Board, Minneapolis Regional office, for petitioner.

Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt, by Thomas M. Vogt, St. Paul, Minn., for respondent.

NEVILLE, District Judge.

This cause comes before the court on a petition filed by the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) requesting a temporary injunction against Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), a Delaware corporation, pursuant to and under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(j). The Board charges that 3M is engaging in an unfair labor practice in that it has failed and refused, and still fails and refuses to bargain collectively with two local unions, both affiliated with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), and both duly certified by the Board as bargaining representatives for certain of the employees at 3M's St. Paul and Hastings, Minnesota plants. The Board seeks injunctive relief in this court prior to its own hearing, which is scheduled before a Trial Examiner of the Board on September 6, 1967. Such examiner will hear and make the initial decision on the merits of the charges made by the OCAW locals, which charges were filed with the Board on or about August 2, 1967. Such a determination on the merits is not the province of this court.

Counsel for the Board stated without contradiction in court that the initial determination by the Board's Trial Examiner would not be known for a period of three to six months after September 6th. It further appears that if either side thereafter files appropriate objections, the decision of the Trial Examiner may be referred to a three-member panel of the Board for review. From the decision of such panel of the Board an appeal can then be had to a Circuit Court and it may be that a period as long as two years could elapse before a final binding decision is made. Meantime, and until a decision is final, the Board itself has no enforcement or restraining power. Thus it has applied to this court pursuant to Section 10(j), consistent with what it conceives the congressional purpose to have been when Section 10(j) was enacted.

The unfair labor practice, if such exists, is being carried on in St. Paul and Hastings, Minnesota within this Judicial District and 3M is an employer engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. This court thus has jurisdiction to determine and to pass upon the petition for temporary injunction.

The facts are not seriously in dispute, and were established by the taking of testimony before the court on August 22nd and 23rd, 1967. 3M has approximately 70 plants or business locations throughout the United States. It is a large manufacturer of industrial abrasives, tapes, duplicating equipment and many other products. Something less than 10% of its volume of business is the result of government contracts. It has collective bargaining agreements or labor contracts with some 55 local unions which are variously affiliated with 20 to 25 different International Unions. The OCAW, the union here involved, represents employees at eight of 3M's plants. Included in this number is the plant at St. Paul, Minnesota, employing approximately 2,450 employees and the plant at Hastings, Minnesota, referred to as the Chemolite plant, employing approximately 850 employees. The St. Paul local is #6-75 and is the company's largest bargaining unit. The Hastings plant is #6-418 and ranks fifth to eighth in size.

In the past, the labor contracts for these two plants have to some extent, and particularly as to certain major cost items, been negotiated jointly, though each plant has a separate written collective bargaining agreement with each local (Pet.'s Ex. 1 and 2). Both of these agreements expired on August 27, 1967. None of the other labor contracts at other 3M plants expire simultaneously; nor are any now open for bargaining or extension. Collective bargaining negotiations in recent years as to St. Paul and Hastings have occurred in 1957, 1959, 1962 and the last time in May of 1964. The contracts when negotiated have thus been in force and effect for periods of more than one year, the recently expired contracts having covered a period of three years. With minimal exceptions, bargaining has always been completed before contract expiration date.

In June 1967 the locals of OCAW concluded to open negotiations for their contracts in the manner and as provided by the contract terms. There followed a letter dated June 23, 1967 from one of the locals to 3M (Pet. Ex. 3) advising that the present contract was terminated "for the purpose of Negotiation of Additional Benefits pertaining to Wages, Hours, Working Conditions, and Conditions of Employment." The letter contained the following paragraph:

"We also wish to inform you that our Negotiating Committee for the forthcoming Negotiations will at times include certain Members or Officers of other Labor Organizations. These individuals, when they participate in our Negotiations, will be part of our Bargaining Committee, and will be negotiating only for our Bargaining Unit. We have been advised that we have the Legal Right to include such persons on our Negotiating Committee. If you have any objections to their participation, please let me know immediately so that we can attempt to come to some understanding about this matter before the Negotiations commence."

The testimony is that these representatives, members or officers of other labor unions, were to have no vote on the question of acceptance or rejection of 3M proposals and would be present in an advisory capacity and solely to negotiate for the two local unions involved. A union witness stated that the 3M Company frequently compared current contract suggestions with what the 3M labor contracts and conditions were at other plants in the United States, in some instances presenting prepared charts to illustrate situations existing in other of its plants. It was stated that the union negotiating committee wanted some persons present from one or some of the other plants to verify any such statements and generally to consult and advise based on familiarity with their own contracts and situations.

In prior years, each of the two local unions has been represented by a negotiating committee of nine composed of four officers and five persons elected from the membership plus a representative or representatives from the OCAW International. At times a member of the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO (I.U.D.), Mr. Stephen J. Harris, also has sat and met with the negotiating committees, particularly in discussions with 3M concerning pensions. 3M has not raised, and does not now raise, any objection to such persons joining the local unions' negotiation committee. Counsel for 3M also stated in open court that it had no objection to experts in any particular field sitting in at negotiations, to discuss such subjects as safety conditions, incentive plans, pension, insurance, etc. It does strenuously object, however, to the presence of union officers or members from union locals with which it has contracts at other of its plants.

It is clear that in earlier years, the two locals had directed a request to 3M for additional union persons at the bargaining conferences but such had been refused. In 1962, three or four representatives of other unions were present in the same hotel as housed the negotiating meetings, but conferred only at recess or overnight with the locals' bargaining committee, and did not actually sit in the room while bargaining and negotiations were taking place.

Following the union letter of June 23rd, the Director of Industrial Relations for 3M replied to the union by letter on July 10, 1967 (Pet. Ex. 4), and stated in part as follows:

"In accordance with our recent telephone conversations, we are prepared to meet under the same conditions as in the past at any time which is mutually convenient to work out a new agreement for St. Paul and Chemolite."

In the interim, on June 27 and again on July 7, the Director of Industrial Relations orally informed union representatives that 3M would not negotiate or bargain with a committee which included officers or members of other unions. Matters culminated on July 14th when, at an arranged meeting, the two locals (apparently contrary to what 3M understood to be a prior commitment) brought into the negotiating meeting after it had progressed for some little time two men from other 3M plants, specifically a member of the Allied Industrial Workers employed at 3M's American Lava Plant, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a member of the United Glass and Ceramic Workers, with whom 3M has a contract at its Bristol, Pennsylvania plant. Plans apparently were for the attendance of a third man, a member of The Federation of Grain Millers, the union representing the employees at Bedford Park, Illinois, but due to circumstances which are the subject of a separate controversy, he was not present. Almost immediately upon this occurrence, 3M negotiators, headed by the Director of Industrial Relations, left the meeting. Negotiations have been substantially at a stalemate since. Shortly thereafter the unions filed the unfair labor practice charge with the Board, the hearing on which is set before the Board for September 6th.

Both parties are in agreement that 3M, and in fact any employer, has the right to deal and bargain separately with the certified representative union at each plant and is not compelled, and cannot be compelled without its consent, to...