National Labor Rel. Bd. v. Jamestown Sterling Corp.
| Decision Date | 05 April 1954 |
| Docket Number | Docket 22862.,No. 170,170 |
| Citation | 211 F.2d 725 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. JAMESTOWN STERLING CORP. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
George J. Bott, David P. Findling, A. Norman Somers, Owsley Vose and Jean Engstrom, Washington, D. C., for petitioner.
Rogerson & Hewes, J. Russell Rogerson, Jamestown, N. Y., for respondent.
Before CLARK, MEDINA and HARLAN, Circuit Judges.
This case involves a more or less typical controversy between employer and employees. In the week of July 7, 1952, following the shutdown of the plant in the Village of Falconer, Chautauqua County, New York, during a vacation period, there began a concerted effort to unionize the employees. The discharge of the principal organizers, Cavallaro and Carlton, and the practically simultaneous announcement of an increase in wages and the granting of four paid holidays commencing with Labor Day, September 1, 1952, and an "incentive plan," coupled with a certain amount of interrogation of employees and conduct which was readily susceptible of the interpretation of a threat of discharge for union activities, present the usual issues of credibility. That there was ample justification for the discharge of Cavallaro for "visiting" and of Carlton for "absenteeism" is all too apparent. But the record justifies the conclusion reached by the triers of the facts that Pickard the president and Ruby the plant superintendent were aware of the efforts to unionize the factory, despite their denials, and numerous conversations and attendant circumstances, which we deem it unnecessary to recite in detail, support the conclusions of the Board that the unexplained coincidence of time with respect to the principal events was really no coincidence at all, but rather part of a deliberate effort by the management to scotch the lawful measures of the employees before they had progressed too far toward fruition. The conclusions of the Board were arrived at, so far as we can see, by the usual method of weighing conflicting proofs and there was no shifting of the burden of proof to respondent, as claimed. If employees are discharged partly because of their participation in a campaign to establish a union and partly because of some neglect or delinquency, there is nonetheless a violation of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. We see no reason to disturb the findings of fact, each of which we find to be supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. The Board found that respondent: (1) violated Sections 8(a) (1) and (3) of the Act by discharging Cavallaro and Carlton; and (2) independently violated Section 8(a) (1) of the Act by granting wage increases and other benefits to employees, by questioning employees about union activities, and by threatening Olson, one of the employees, with discharge because of his union membership. The Board ordered respondent to cease and desist from discriminating...
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