National Labor Relations Board v. Wallace Mfg. Co., 4275.

• Decision Date: 05 April 1938
• Docket Number: No. 4275.,4275.
• Citation: 95 F.2d 818
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. WALLACE MFG. CO., Inc.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

95 F.2d 818 (1938)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. WALLACE MFG. CO., Inc.

No. 4275.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

April 5, 1938.

Malcolm F. Halliday, Attorney, National Labor Relations Board, of Washington, D. C. (Charles Fahy, Gen. Counsel, Robert B. Watts, Associate General Counsel, and Laurence A. Knapp and Mortimer B. Wolf, Attys., National Labor Relations Board, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for petitioner.

L. W. Perrin, of Spartanburg, S. C. (Perrin & Tinsley, of Spartanburg, S. C., on the brief), for respondent.

Before PARKER, NORTHCOTT, and SOPER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This is a petition for a decree enforcing an order of the National Labor Relations Board. Four questions arise for our determination: (1) Whether respondent is subject to the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.; (2) whether there was evidence justifying the finding that respondent has interfered with the right of self organization on the part of its employees; (3) whether there was evidence justifying the finding that respondent had discriminated in regard to hire and tenure of employment in the discharge of one Frank Rochester, an employee; and (4) whether the portion of the order directing respondent to withdraw recognition from an employees' organization and disestablish it as a bargaining agency is justified.

On the first question, the evidence is that respondent is engaged in operating a cotton textile manufacturing plant at Jonesville, S. C., with 16,344 spindles and 181 employees. Its plant production has an average annual value of $200,000 and is sold through commission merchants in New York in interstate commerce, being sold on orders f. o. b. the plant. About 75 per cent. of the product is shipped directly out of the state, the remainder being shipped to bleacheries in the state for further processing. Cotton processed at the plant is raised within the state, but fuel and a large part of the machinery used is shipped from without. There is no question but that respondent is subject to the provisions of the act. Mooresville Cotton Mills v. National Labor Relations Board, 4 Cir., 94 F.2d 61; Jeffery-DeWitt Insulator Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 4 Cir., 91 F.2d 134, 112 A.L.R. 948; National Labor Relations Board v. Friedman-Harry Marks Clothing Co., 301 U.S. 58, 57 S.Ct. 645, 630, 81 L.Ed. 921, 108 A.L.R. 1352.

On the second and third questions, the Board's findings that respondent interfered with the right of self-organization on the part of its employees and that it discharged Frank Rochester because of union membership and activities are clearly supported by evidence which, if believed, is of substantial character; and it is well settled that we have no power to pass upon the credibility of witnesses or to substitute our judgment on questions of fact for that of the Board. The act expressly provides that, "The findings of the Board as to the facts, if supported by evidence, shall be conclusive." Section 10 (e) of the act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(e). This, of course, requires support by substantial evidence; but as we pointed out in the recent case of Appalachian Electric Power Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 4 Cir., 93 F.2d 985, the test of substantiality is the same as that presented on the motion for a directed verdict in a trial at law. We cannot say on this record that the findings of the Board lack such support.

Local No. 2237 United Textile Workers Union was organized at the plant of respondent in June, 1934, and the membership reached a total of 118. After a strike which occurred in September, 1934, there was a marked decline in membership and between July 5, 1935, and September 13, 1935, the membership decreased to 10, with 28 members in arrears in payment of dues but considered in good standing. During the strike in September, 1934, the employees association was organized as a good will association. Its by-laws forbade membership to any member of the union and provided for...