N.L.R.B. v. National Fixtures, Inc., 77-3055

• Citation: 574 F.2d 1305
• Decision Date: 14 June 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77-3055,77-3055
• Parties: 98 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2816, 84 Lab.Cas. P 10,650 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL FIXTURES, INC., Respondent. Summary Calendar. *
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 1305

574 F.2d 1305

98 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2816, 84 Lab.Cas. P 10,650

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL FIXTURES, INC., Respondent.

No. 77-3055

Summary Calendar. ^*

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 14, 1978.

Elliott Moore, Deputy Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Michael Nicholson, Robert Sewell, Supervisor, John S. Irving, Gen. Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Carl L. Taylor, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, N.L.R.B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Charles Moore, pro se.

Application for Enforcement of an Order of the National Labor Relations Board.

Before GOLDBERG, AINSWORTH and HILL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

The National Labor Relations Board, adopting the administrative law judge's conclusions, found that National Fixtures, Inc. responded to a union organizing campaign by threatening its employees with plant closure and force reduction and by coercively questioning employees concerning union activities in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1). The Board also found that the company discriminatorily terminated six employees because of their union activity in violation of Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1), 158(a)(3). The Board ordered that the company cease its unlawful practices and remedy the consequences of its previous conduct. The Board now petitions for enforcement of that order.

The Board's findings must be sustained if they are supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. See Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951); Mueller Brass Co. v. N. L. R. B., 5 Cir., 1977, 544 F.2d 815. In addition, the credibility resolutions of the administrative law judge and the Board are "entitled to affirmance unless (they are) inherently unreasonable or self-contradictory." N. L. R. B. v. Standard Forge & Axle Co., 5 Cir., 1969, 420 F.2d 508, 510, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 903, 91 S.Ct. 140, 27 L.Ed.2d 140 (1970). Under these standards we conclude that the record clearly supports the Board's finding violations of Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the Act. Accordingly, we enforce the Board's order.

The record contains various instances in which employees were threatened concerning union activity. Cecil Welch testified that after questioning Welch about the union, Charles Moore, president and owner of National Fixtures, Inc., told him that "There ain't no goddamned union coming in here. I'll shut the doors first." Similarly Moore told Thomas Mitchell that Moore did not want a union and that he would cut the plant back to three or four workers to keep the union out. Sally Moore, the secretary-treasurer of the company, phoned Ricky Ramsey and inquired if he knew who was organizing the union. These conversations could reasonably be construed as threatening the workers for union activity.

The discharge of the six discriminatees in this case can also be found to violate the Act since the record indicates that the discharges were related to formation of a union. Although the Kitchens had been asked to work Saturday, Charles Moore made an unprecedented trip to their home Friday evening and fired them without explanation. Willie and Delores Kitchens were discharged only a few hours after the Moores discovered that a union was being organized and that the Kitchens were the principal organizers. The other four workers, all involved in the union organizational drive, were fired the following Monday. While Charles Moore attempted to give business reasons for the discharges, prior to his discovery of the union organizational campaign he had neither indicated any dissatisfaction with...