National Labor Rel. Bd. v. Standard Coil Products Co.

• Decision Date: 15 July 1955
• Docket Number: No. 4920.,4920.
• Citation: 224 F.2d 465
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. STANDARD COIL PRODUCTS CO., Inc., Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

224 F.2d 465 (1955)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. STANDARD COIL PRODUCTS CO., Inc., Respondent.

No. 4920.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

July 15, 1955.

Ruth V. Reel, Washington, D. C., with whom David P. Findling, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Samuel M. Singer, Washington, D. C., Atty., were on brief, for petitioner.

Stanley Geller, New York City, with whom Arthur Richenthal, New York City, was on brief, for respondent.

Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and HARTIGAN, Circuit Judges.

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition by the National Labor Relations Board seeking enforcement of its order of October 20, 1954 which order, adopting the findings of the Trial Examiner, ordered the respondent, Standard Coil Products Co., Inc., a manufacturer of television set tuners, to cease and desist from certain unfair labor practices. The Board found that the respondent had violated Secs. 8(a) (1) and 8(a) (2) of the National Labor Relations Act, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., when it initiated and assisted an Employee-Management Committee at its plant in North Dighton, Massachusetts, and had also violated Secs. 8(a) (1) and 8(a) (3) of the Act through its discriminatory discharge of John C. Martins who had been employed as an analyzer at the North Dighton plant.

The entire evidence relating to the Employee-Management Committee appears in the record and consists of a stipulation of certain facts, a copy of the announcement made to the respondent's employees concerning the creation of the Committee, a copy of an announcement made over the respondent's public address system and a copy of the minutes of the first meeting of the Committee.

It appears from this evidence that operations began at respondent's North Dighton plant on June 23, 1953, but that prior to this, on June 18, 1953, it had been decided by certain of the respondent's officials to form an Employee-Management Committee as soon as the number of employees reached 600. In August, 1953 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, A.F.L., began an attempt to organize the plant. On September 1, 1953, the number of employees reached 600, and two days thereafter there was posted on the respondent's bulletin board a notice stating that an Employee-Management Committee would be established and that "The basic objective of this Committee to be the creation of a team, that in its joint efforts, will be of benefit to all concerned, and give you a voice in your job security * * *. It is anticipated that such Committee will probably discuss suggestions for betterment of working conditions, safety, quality, propriety of dismissals, and other topics of mutual interest." The Committee was to be made up of representatives elected by each section, the respondent's personnel manager and an employee of the personnel manager. This notice also stated that each employee could discuss his "employee-management problems" with his representative on the Committee who then in turn could take up the matter with the other members of the Committee at a Committee meeting. The Committee members would be compensated by the respondent for any time they spent on Committee functions.

The first meeting of the Employee-Management Committee was held on September 11, 1953. According to the minutes it was agreed that the main initial purpose of this Committee would be to establish a free flow of information between the employees and management. It was also decided that employees should not be permitted to smoke while waiting in line to punch out, that the possibility of installing another time clock should be investigated and that a study should be made in order to obtain some means of identifying each employee. The opening of a plant cafeteria and promotional procedure were also discussed as was the conduct of employees toward each other. The personnel manager was questioned about a union and he, not directly answering this question, stated that the respondent was attempting to run a plant where people would like to work and this policy would be followed irrespective of the presence of a union but that what could be done in the future depended in large part upon the cooperation of the employees in producing a quality tuner at competitive prices. Several employee representatives then expressed more or less anti-union opinions. The other points discussed at this meeting were the necessity of a curtain under a production line, the failure of an employee to follow the instructions of a supervisor and the over-loading of work on a relief operator. It was stipulated that at the subsequent meetings of the Employee-Management Committee the topics of discussion were of the same general nature as at the first meeting.

The Board found that the existence of this Employee-Management Committee was an unfair labor practice in violation of Sec. 8(a) (2) of the Act which is as follows:

"(a) It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer —

* * * * *

"(2) to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it * * *."

There is no doubt that the respondent dominated the Employee-Management Committee. However, respondent strongly contends that its Employee-Management Committee was not a "labor organization" under Sec. 2(5) of the Act which provides as follows:

"Sec. 2. When used in this Act —

* * * * *

"(5) The term `labor organization\' means any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work."

The courts have tended to construe broadly this definition of "labor organization". In National Labor Relations Board v. Stow Manufacturing Co., 2 Cir., 1954, 217 F.2d 900, certiorari denied 1954, 348 U.S. 964, 75 S.Ct. 524, it was held that the conducting of meetings of employees by the employer's president at which he made a speech and conducted a question and answer period constituted a "labor organization" under the Act. The Employee-Management Committee in the instant case certainly possesses more of the characteristics of a "labor organization" than did "The Monthly Meetings of All Departments" in the Stow Manufacturing Co. case and is substantially similar to the Advisory, Safety, Grievance and Benefit Committees involved in National Labor Relations Board v. General Shoe Corp., 6 Cir., 1951, 192 F.2d 504, certiorari denied 1952, 343 U.S. 904, 72 S.Ct. 635, 96 L. Ed. 1323, the "Open Door Committee" in National Labor Relations Board v. Saxe-Glassman Shoe Corp., 1 Cir., 1953, 201 F.2d 238, 240, the Employee Representative Group and Committees in National Labor Relations Board v. Sharples Chemicals, 6 Cir., 1954, 209 F.2d 645, and the Advisory Committee in Indiana Metal Products Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 7 Cir., 1953, 202 F.2d 613. In all these cases the employee organization was found to be a "labor organization" under the Act. However, the Sixth Circuit which broadly interpreted the statutory definition in the General Shoe and Sharples Chemicals cases, supra, has recently held in National Labor Relations Board v. Associated Machines, Inc., 6 Cir., 1955, 219 F. 2d 433 that an employee organization entitled the Associated Machines, Inc. Committee was not a labor organization within the meaning of the Act. This Committee was composed of the employer's general manager, who presided at the Committee meetings, and four employees elected by their fellow workers. Topics relating to production, plant efficiency, new equipment and other problems of mutual interest were discussed at the meetings of this Committee. The Committee had been organized principally in order that the management could be informed of the employees' recommendations and suggestions and could discuss with the employees any grievances that they might have. The court held that the Committee did not deal with the employer "concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work" and was therefore not a labor organization within the meaning of the statute. It was stated at page 437 that the term "grievances" in Sec. 2(5) of the Act was used to refer to "major disputes in the labor field, to collective rather than individual or group complaints, and to chart the future of the employer-employee relationship rather than to correct the past or existing status of that relationship" and that grievances in this sense had not been discussed by the Associated Machines, Inc. Committee. The General Shoe Corp. and Sharples Chemicals cases were distinguished on the ground that in those cases wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, and conditions of work had been discussed whereas in the Associated Machines, Inc. case "such discussion as was had...