National Labor Relations Board v. Warren Company, Incorporated
| Decision Date | 12 December 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 27,27 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. The WARREN COMPANY, INCORPORATED |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. David P. Findling, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Mr. John Wesley Weekes, Decatur, Ga., for respondent.
On August 7, 1952, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered its decree enforcing in full an order of the National Labor Relations Board issued on June 30, 1950, against respondent herein directing it (1) to cease and desist from refusing to bargain collectively with District Lodge No. 46, International Association of Machinists, a labor union, as the exclusive bargaining agent of all its tool and die makers, machinists, etc., and from discouraging membership in the union; (2) to take affirmative action upon request to bargain collectively with the union as the exclusive representative of respondent's said employees and, if an understanding should be reached, to embody such understanding in a signed agreement; and (3) to post at its plant a notice to be furnished by the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board and signed by the officers of respondent agreeing to desist from certain unfair labor practices, and to bargain collectively with the union upon request as required in the order. 197 F.2d 814.
Respondent had posted the notice and restored certain employees to their jobs as required by the order, but declined to bargain collectively with the union, although requested by the latter to do so on numerous occasions over a period of seven months, basing its refusal to do so on the ground that the union had lost its alleged majority status by reason of a turnover in personnel. It demanded proof from the union that it represented a majority of the employees then employed in the bargaining unit. The union replied that its majority status had been determined by the Board and by the Court of Appeals in its decree of enforcement. Respondent never bargained collectively with the union, either before or after the decree, contending at all times that the latter did not have majority status, although in 1948 the employees had designated the union as their bargaining agent and the Board had found that respondent had avoided collective bargaining through its lack of good faith and because of its own unfair labor practices. This finding was not challenged by respondent and was adopted by the Court of Appeals in its enforcement decree of August 7, 1952. Respondent then filed a petition with the Board on January 27, 1953, requesting an election in the bargaining unit. Because of respondent's failure to remedy its unfair labor practice by good-faith bargaining with the union for a reasonable period, the Board sustained its Regional Director's dismissal of the petition.
On September 22, 1953, the Board filed its petition in the Court of Appeals, specifically setting forth the conduct of respondent showing its failure and refusal to comply with the court's decree enforcing the Board's order, and asking that respondent be required to show cause why it should not be adjudged in civil contempt. The Board also asked the court to institute a prosecution for criminal contempt against respondent. Respondent answered, claiming compliance with the decree except that since the decree of the court it had refused to bargain collectively with the union as the bargaining agent of its employees because for a long time the union had not represented its employees as such bargaining agent.
The Court of Appeals concluded that no case for a civil contempt order had been made out and dismissed the proceeding. The court held that, notwithstanding the prior entry of a decree directing respondent to bargain collectively with the union, respondent's compliance with other provisions of the decree entitled it to refuse to bargain collectively since it had ascertained that even before the decree, because of a turnover in personnel, the union had lost majority status. The court stated that to hold respondent liable in contempt under these circumstances would do violence to its decree and to the Act rather than to vindicate them.
Because of the importance of the question in the administration of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., we granted certiorari, 348 U.S. 958, 75 S.Ct. 449. Petitioner does not press here its prayer in the court below for an adjudication of criminal contempt.
In arriving at its decision purging respondent of contempt, the Court of Appeals stated (214 F.2d 485) that respondent had 'complied fully with all the provisions' of its enforcement order; that it had 'made an offer to bargain with the union'; that the union's alleged loss of majority status was 'without fault' on the respondent's part; and that the Board took the position that respondent was required 'to bargain indefinitely' notwithstanding the union's loss of majority status.
If we had so understood the record, certiorari would not have been granted, but we do not so understand it. We believe the facts are to the contrary in each instance.
The original order of the Board found not only that respondent for a period of four years after notification by the union of its majority status had refused to bargain with it, but had also used deliberate and flagrant unfair labor practices to deprive the union of its majority status. In its opinion enforcing this cease and desist order, the Court...
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...as established practice the issuance of administrative subpoenas as a matter of absolute agency right. And in NLRB v. Warren Co. , 350 U.S. 107 (1955), the Court held that the lower court had no discretion to withhold sanctions against a contemnor who violated such subpoenas. The 1948 revis......
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...as established practice the issuance of administrative subpoenas as a matter of absolute agency right. And in NLRB v. Warren Co. , 350 U.S. 107 (1955), the Court held that the lower court had no discretion to withhold sanctions against a contemnor who violated such subpoenas. The 1948 revis......