National Labor Rel. Bd. v. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., 6574.
| Decision Date | 21 July 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 6574.,6574. |
| Citation | 205 F.2d 821 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. LEHIGH PORTLAND CEMENT CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Norton J. Come, Attorney, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C. (George J. Bott, General Counsel, David P. Findling, Associate General Counsel, A. Norman Somers, Assistant General Counsel, Washington, D. C. and Edmond F. Rovner, Attorney, N. L. R. B., New York City, on brief), for petitioner.
Robert H. Kleeb, Philadelphia, Pa. (Souser & Schumacker, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for respondent.
Before PARKER, Chief Judge, and SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
The question in this case is whether the Lehigh Portland Cement Company was required by §§ 8(a) (1) and 8(a) (5) of the National Labor Relations Act as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., to bargain with the United Cement, Lime and Gypsum Workers International Union, the bargaining representative of 254 out of a total of 288 of its employees, in respect to the rental of 65 dwelling units owned and maintained by the company in the vicinity of the plant. The Labor Board held that the housing units were a mandatory subject of the bargaining provision of the Act, 101 N.L.R.B. 1010, and has petitioned this court to give effect to its order whereby it directed the company to cease and desist from refusing to bargain collectively with the union in respect to the rentals.
The company maintains a plant for the manufacture of cement at Fordwick, Virginia, an unincorporated community of less than 1,000 people. The company now owns 65 dwelling units located within a mile of the plant. This number remains out of a total of 150 units which were similarly located when it acquired the plant in 1916. Five of the 65 units are leased to non-employees of whom 3 were employed when their tenancy began; one is the mother of an employee who pays the rent, and one is the sublessor of an employee of the company; of the remaining 60 units 10 are rented to supervisory and clerical employees, who are outside the bargaining unit, and 50 are rented to employees who are members of the bargaining unit. The company pursues the policy of renting its houses to its employees and maintains the present allotment as between employees within and employees without the bargaining unit. Housing in the area is in short supply and consequently there is a demand for the company houses. There were 10 applications for them at the time of the hearing. Applications are not granted in the order in which they are filed or on the basis of the seniority of the applicants. The houses are maintained and kept in repair by the company. The rents in most instances are deducted from the wages of the employees and in other cases the rents are paid in cash at the company's office.
The rental of the houses which had not been raised for fourteen years prior to 1951 were uniformly low. The company gave notice in March, 1951 that the rents would be raised as of May 1, 1951 and this announcement led to a protest on the part of the tenants and a request by them and by the union that the company first take up the matter with the union. The company, however, refused on the ground that the rent of the...
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Local 777, Democratic Union Organizing Committee, Seafarers Intern. Union of North America, AFL-CIO v. N.L.R.B.
...Leasing fees for company houses have consistently been held to be a mandatory subject of bargaining, E. g., NLRB v. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., 205 F.2d 821 (4th Cir. 1953), enforcing 101 NLRB 529 (1952); NLRB v. Hart Cotton Mills, Inc., 190 F.2d 964 (4th Cir. 1951); American Smelting and R......
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...406 F.2d 552, 554-55 (9th Cir.), Cert. denied 395 U.S 935, 89 S.Ct. 1998, 23 L.Ed.2d 450 (1969) (housing); NLRB v. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., 205 F.2d 821, 823-24 (4th Cir. 1953) (housing); Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., 87 NLRB 672, 25 LRRM 1163 (1949) (meals). But see Westinghouse Electric Cor......
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...of collective bargaining if their ownership and management materially affects the condition of employment. N.L.R.B. v. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., 205 F.2d 821 (4th Cir. 1953). In the case before us, under the particular circumstances no imaginative effort is required to determine that the ......
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Local 164, Brotherhood of Painters v. NLRB, 15643.
...of matters that do not relate to the actual performance of work, including rentals of company houses, National Labor Relations Board v. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., 4 Cir., 205 F.2d 821; checkoff of union dues, National Labor Relations Board v. Reed & Prince Mfg. Co., 1 Cir., 205 F.2d 131, 1......
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Employee Housing Assistance—legal Considerations for California Public Agencies
...Gov. Code § 31460.9. Gov. Code § 20636(g)(3).10. Lehigh Portland Cement Co. (1952) 101 NLRB 529 [31 LRRM 1097], enfd (4th Cir. 1953) 205 F.2d 821 [32 LRRM 2463]; American Smelting & Refining Co. (1967) 167 NLRB 204, enfd. (9th Cir. 1969) 406 F.2d 552, cert. denied, (1969) 395 U.S. 935.11. C......