N.L.R.B. v. Coca-Cola Co. Foods Div.

• Decision Date: 09 February 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-1546,COCA-COLA,81-1546
• Citation: 670 F.2d 84
• Parties: 109 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2750, 93 Lab.Cas. P 13,238 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. TheCOMPANY FOODS DIVISION, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 84

670 F.2d 84

109 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2750, 93 Lab.Cas. P 13,238

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. The COCA-COLA COMPANY FOODS DIVISION, Respondent.

No. 81-1546.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 21, 1981.

Decided Feb. 9, 1982.

Elliott Moore, N.L.R.B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

O. R. T. Bowden, Hamilton & Bowden, Jacksonville, Fla., for respondent.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, and CUDAHY and POSNER, Circuit Judges.

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

We are presented with a question apparently of first impression regarding the power of the National Labor Relations Board to prohibit interference with concerted activities before they materialize.

Richard Geer, a mechanic at one of the respondent's plants, was promoted into a training program to become a roving mechanic, and then was released from the program, unjustly in his view, and returned to his previous job. Although the plant is not unionized, the company has a grievance procedure for its employees and Geer filed a grievance. His foreman decided that the grievance was without merit and the foreman's decision was sustained by the plant manager, Louderback. Geer then wrote a long letter to Louderback's superior, repeating his grievance and adding various accusations against Louderback personally. Louderback, angered by this, summoned Geer to his office. The evidence is conflicting on what was said there, but the administrative law judge believed Geer's version and we accept the ALJ's finding. According to Geer, Louderback abused him in various ways and then said: "If any talk gets around out there on that floor about this grievance and what it pertains and this meeting, I'm coming after you." The ALJ interpreted these remarks, and we accept his interpretation, as forbidding Geer to discuss his grievance with his fellow workers and as threatening retaliation if Geer did so; and such conduct, the ALJ concluded, violated section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), because it "clearly tend(ed) to interfere with and inhibit employees' free expression of their grievances." The NLRB affirmed the ALJ's decision, initially without an opinion; but later the Board added the following paragraph to its order:

We agree with the Administrative Law Judge's conclusion that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by threatening to retaliate against employee Geer if he discussed his grievance with other employees. By such threat, the Respondent restrained and coerced Geer in his Section 7 right to discuss his grievance with other employees for the purpose of seeking their aid and support.

Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act makes it an unfair labor practice to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7 of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157, and among these rights is the right of employees to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection. We accept the Board's finding that the respondent, through Louderback, interfered with Geer's discussing his grievance with his coworkers; the question is whether the respondent thereby interfered with concerted activity for the purpose of mutual aid or...