National Labor Relations Board v. Somerset Classics

• Decision Date: 14 January 1952
• Docket Number: Docket 22081.,No. 58,58
• Citation: 193 F.2d 613
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. SOMERSET CLASSICS, Inc. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

193 F.2d 613 (1952)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. SOMERSET CLASSICS, Inc. et al.

No. 58, Docket 22081.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued December 11, 1951.

Decided January 14, 1952.

Willis S. Ryza, Atty., National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D. C. (George J. Bott, Gen. Counsel, David P. Findling, Asso. Gen. Counsel, A. Norman Somers, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Dominick L. Manoli, Atty., National Labor Relations Board, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for petitioner.

Walter J. Mahoney, of Buffalo, N. Y., and George Moskowitz, of New York City, for respondent Somerset Classics, Inc.

Aaron L. Danzig, of New York City (Nemeroff, Jelline, Danzig & Paley, of New York City, on the brief), for respondent Modern Manufacturing Company, Inc.

Before CHASE, CLARK, and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board here seeks enforcement of its order in usual form directing the two respondents Somerset Classics, Inc., and Modern Manufacturing Company, Inc., to cease from refusing to bargain with a union and discriminating against union employees, to reinstate discharged employees, and to make them whole for any loss of pay occasioned by the discrimination against them. The major issue is the substantiality of the evidence to support the Board's findings and conclusions.

Somerset Classics is a garment contractor engaged in the job-lot sewing and completion of ladies' dresses for Modern Manufacturing Company, a garment manufacturer or jobber. The two companies have substantial interconnections. Somerset's officers and directors are David Friedman and his two stepbrothers, Joseph and Max Donner, who are also the three stockholders of Outdoor Frocks, a corporation which owns the Somerset stock. The Outdoor Frocks stock, formerly owned by David's father, Sigmond, was by him transferred to David, David's wife, and the Donners. These are also the minority stockholders of Modern, Sigmond being its majority stockholder and president, while its other officers are David and the Donners. Modern has a main office in New York City, with show rooms in New York, Boston, and Chicago and a plant in Kingston, New York. It purchases and cuts the material, then ships it for sewing to a Friedman affiliate, of which Somerset, located in Rome, New York, is one, and later, upon receipt of the completed garments, sells them to the retailers.

On October 7, 1948, organizers for the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, A. F. of L., appeared outside the Somerset plant and shortly thereafter began to pass out membership cards for signing by Somerset's employees. The Friedman plants had never previously been organized. Several days later, one of the union officers called Somerset and requested a bargaining conference, a request which was passed on to David Friedman in New York City. It next appears that almost simultaneously (1) the shop forelady called a meeting of all employees and informed them that she was aware of the unionization campaign, (2) Joseph Donner also made a speech regarding the possibility that the plant would close, (3) a cryptic petition testifying to the employees' desire to keep their jobs was circulated and signed, and (4) Modern's shipments of goods to Somerset came to a halt, resulting in Somerset's eventual complete shutdown on October 27. The plant again resumed operations a month later, but with a greatly reduced labor force.

Inevitably the interpretation of these speeches and the forced shutdown are a matter of dispute between the Board and the respondents. The former has accepted the view of a number of witnesses before it, that both the forelady and Joseph Donner threatened the possibility of a lockout if the unionization campaign continued to receive the employees' support. The Board in addition concluded that the actual work stoppage, when it came, was not the product of market considerations, as asserted, but rather had been instituted as an economic sanction against the union's concerted activity. It thus held that these actions by the Somerset and Modern management constituted conduct calculated to interfere with and restrain organization efforts protected by § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 157, and therefore amounted to violations of § 8(a)(1) and (3), 29 U.S. C.A. § 158(a)(1) and (3). The Board also found a continuing partial lockout violative of the same sections in the resumption of operations after November 28, 1948, based on the fact that Somerset had instituted discriminatory hiring practices favoring those unattached to the unionization campaign.

Respondent Modern, adducing an exculpatory and more innocent explanation of events, attacks these conclusions under a principle of Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 340 U.S. 474, 477, 71 S.Ct. 456, 459, 95 L.Ed. 456, that the evidence "must do more than create a suspicion of the existence of the fact to be established." But the evidence supporting the Board's conclusions is not so insubstantial. The...