National Labor Relations Board v. Landis Tool Co., 10563.
| Decision Date | 03 January 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 10563.,10563. |
| Citation | 193 F.2d 279 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. LANDIS TOOL CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Willis S. Ryza, Washington, D. C. (George J. Bott, General Counsel, David P. Findling, Associate General Counsel, A. Norman Somers, Asst. General Counsel and Frederick U. Reel, National Labor Relations Board, all of Washington, D. C., on the Brief), for petitioner.
Lacy I. Rice, Martinsburg, W. Va., and Earle K. Shawe, Baltimore, Md. (Rice, Hannis & Rodgers, Martinsburg, W. Va., counsel on the Brief), for respondent.
Before BIGGS, Chief Judge, and MARIS and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.
The National Labor Relations Board on April 18, 1950 found that Landis Tool Company, the respondent, had refused to engage in good faith in collective bargaining with the Pattern Makers League of North America, the certified bargaining representative of an appropriate unit of its employees in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., and entered an order requiring the respondent to cease from such refusal. 89 N.L.R.B. 503. On September 11, 1951 the Board filed the present petition in this court for the enforcement of the order. The respondent strongly urges that the Board's crucial findings are not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. Our consideration of the case compels the conclusion that the respondent is right and that the Board's order must be set aside.
The Board found "that by refusing to submit a counterproposal, by refusing to recognize the separate identity of the patternmakers as an appropriate unit for the purpose of negotiating a wage increase, by unilaterally granting a wage increase on June 7, 1948, and by dilatory tactics in delaying meeting with the Union, the Respondent evidenced an intention to avoid its duty to bargain in good faith." Each of the four subsidiary findings upon which the Board thus relied must be examined in the light of the previous relations between the respondent and the League as shown by the record. When so examined they lose all substance.
At an election held on March 12, 1946, the Pattern Makers League of North America was chosen as their bargaining representative by the patternmakers and patternmaker apprentices employed by respondent. On the same day approximately 900 production and maintenance employees of the respondent chose the International Union of United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America as their bargaining representative. Thereafter the respondent commenced negotiations with both unions, its first bargaining conference with the Pattern Makers League being held on May 1, 1946, at which time the League presented a proposed contract and demanded a substantial increase in wages. The next conference was on May 23, 1946 at which time the respondent presented a written counterproposal. Subsequent conferences were held on June 25, 1946, April 10, 1947, May 15, 1947 and February 27, 1948. No other meetings were requested by the League during this period.
At these meetings the League's proposal and the respondent's counterproposal were fully discussed. The respondent informed the League that it was negotiating with the union which represented its 900 production and maintenance employees and that the League's demands for large wage increases, union security, plantwide seniority and other changes must be considered in relation to the entire plant picture. It was recognized by the League's representatives that there was merit in this position and for this reason they did not press the negotiations any more vigorously during 1946 and 1947. There was evidence that the League's representatives sought and obtained from the respondent an oral understanding that if, during their negotiations, the respondent granted a general plantwide wage increase, such increase would be put into effect for the patternmakers as a partial payment of and without prejudice to their wage demands. The Board thought that the record failed to support the existence of such an agreement but our review of the whole record satisfies us beyond doubt that such an agreement was made. The great weight of the evidence establishes the fact and the subsequent conduct of both parties confirms it. Thus a general increase in wages in the plant was put into effect by the respondent on November 4, 1946 and again on June 23, 1947. In each case the respondent informed a representative of the League of its intention to apply the increase to the patternmakers as well as to its other employees and the representative acquiesced.
The Board found no unfair labor practice on the part of the respondent until May 4, 1948, when the next meeting took place. At this meeting the parties discussed a short memorandum contract which the League's representative had submitted. Oral proposals and counterproposals were made and discussed as well as a written substitute for the League's proposed discrimination clause. The League's representative asked the respondent to submit a counterproposal but the latter declined to do so until the League had itself submitted a complete new proposal. It was this attitude on the part of the respondent which the Board took as one of the bases for its finding against the respondent. The Board was here clearly in error, however, since it ignored the fact that the respondent at the second meeting on May 23, 1946 had laid on the bargaining table a full written counterproposal to the contract offered by the League at the first conference. Both proposals were before the parties and were discussed at every meeting. The area of agreement obviously lay between them. Since the Act, as amended, does not require the making of a concession1 the respondent had no legal duty to offer a second counterproposal.
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