National Labor Rel. Board v. Collins & Aikman Corp.

• Decision Date: 28 December 1944
• Docket Number: No. 5301.,5301.
• Citation: 146 F.2d 454
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. COLLINS & AIKMAN CORPORATION.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

146 F.2d 454 (1944)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. COLLINS & AIKMAN CORPORATION.

No. 5301.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

December 28, 1944.

Owsley Vose, Atty. National Labor Relations Board, of Washington, D.C. (Alvin J. Rockwell, Gen. Counsel, Malcolm F. Halliday, Associate Gen. Counsel, and Eleanor Schwartzbach, Atty., National Labor Relations Board, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for petitioner.

F. L. Fuller, Jr., of Durham, N. C. (William B. Umstead, of Durham, N. C., Robert P. Burns, of Roxboro, N. C., and Albert R. Jube, of New York City, on the brief), for respondent.

Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.

DOBIE, Circuit Judge.

This case is before us on a petition of the National Labor Relations Board (hereinafter called the Board) for the enforcement of an order issued by the Board against the Collins & Aikman Corporation (hereinafter called Collins). This order was based upon the Board's finding that Collins had violated Section 8(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (hereinafter called the Act), 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., in that Collins (a) had engaged in surveillance over union activities of its employees and (b) had discriminatorily discharged Arthur Hanks, one of its employees, because of his activities on behalf of the Textile Workers Union of America, C. I. O. (hereinafter called the Union). The only questions before us are whether the findings of the Board are supported by substantial evidence and (if the findings are so supported) whether the Board's order, based on these findings, is a proper order.

We are here concerned only with the mill of Collins near Roxboro, North Carolina. An organizational campaign among the employees of Collins was started in 1937. Plant Engineer Warren called to his office an employee named Wright and questioned him about the activities to unionize the mill. Later, Warren summoned the machinists to his office and warned them that if they joined the C. I. O., they would be working for the C. I. O. and taking orders from it. Warren went on further to state that Collins could not afford to let the C. I. O. run its mill.

The Board, finding no other evidence of unfair labor practices between 1937 and 1942, did not find that the activities of Collins in 1937 constituted unfair labor practices. Yet the Board did consider this 1937 background of union hostility as one relevant element which might be considered by the Board in appraising the conduct of Collins in 1942. This, we think, was entirely proper. N. L. R. B. v. Link-Belt Co., 311 U.S. 584, 588, 61 S.Ct. 358, 85 L.Ed. 368; International Association of Machinists v. N. L. R. B., 71 App. D.C. 175, 110 F.2d 29, 35, affirmed 311 U. S. 72, 78, 79, 61 S.Ct. 83, 85 L.Ed. 50; American Enka Corporation v. N. L. R. B., 4 Cir., 119 F.2d 60, 63.

(1) Surveillance.

Another campaign to unionize the mill began in July, 1942, when Fred Pearce, a Union Organizer, came to Roxboro at the request of Huey Pearce, an employee of Collins. Arthur Hanks, an employee of Collins, was quickly signed up by Fred Pearce and these two actively distributed union application cards and solicited union memberships among the employees. Most of their activity centered around the village drug store before the end of the second shift at 11 p. m. Word of these activities quickly reached the officers of Collins.

Immediately, though it was not their usual custom, Resident Manager Ford, Assistant Resident Manager Bradsher, George Currier, Manager of the Dyeing Department, and others came almost nightly to the drug store and spent several hours there during the hours before the end of the second shift. About three weeks later, when, after the discharge of Hanks and the transfer of Huey Pearce to another shift, the Union campaign ceased, these nocturnal visits of the mill officials to the drug store ceased as suddenly as they had begun. When asked by the trial examiner why these visits to the drug store ceased, Resident Manager Ford naively answered: "Because the organizer had left and there seemed to be no further discussion about him or anything else, so I just dropped back to my usual habits. I have been there occasionally, but that is all."

On direct examination, Resident Manager Ford stated that the reason for his evening visits to the drug store during the period in question was: "I went there because I feared there might be some disorder or violence." Yet, on cross-examination, when asked: "Well, during that period of two weeks or more did you observe any violence?" Ford replied: "No, I did not." Yet these visits of Ford and the other mill officials continued during the organization period. Nor does the evidence disclose any reasonable grounds for the anticipation of disorder or violence.

We think, accordingly, there was substantial evidence to support the Board's finding of surveillance. Nor does it avail Collins to assert that whatever surveillance existed was carried out openly and not surreptitiously. Any real surveillance by the employer over the Union activities of employees, whether frankly open or carefully concealed, falls under the prohibitions of the Act. Republic Steel Corporation v. N. L. R. B., 3 Cir., 107 F.2d 472, 474, certiorari denied 309 U.S. 684, 60 S.Ct. 806, 84 L. Ed. 1027; N. L. R. B. v. Van Deusen, 2 Cir., 138 F.2d 893, 895; Berkshire Knitting Mills v. N. L. R. B., 3 Cir., 139 F.2d 134, 140; N. L. R. B. v. Northwestern Mutual Fire Association, 9 Cir., 142 F.2d 866.

(2) The Discharge of Hanks.

Hanks, after 12 years of service with Collins, was discharged three weeks after he became one of the militant workers for the Union, and actively and openly solicited employees at the drug store almost every evening. For more than 4 years, he had been a loom fixer charged with the duty of keeping 12 looms in proper operating condition.

Soon after the beginning of the activities in 1942 to unionize the mill, Carver, a foreman, notified Hanks of his transfer from the third to the second...