NLRB v. Bedford-Nugent Corporation

• Decision Date: 02 June 1967
• Docket Number: No. 15875.,15875.
• Citation: 379 F.2d 528
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. BEDFORD-NUGENT CORPORATION, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

379 F.2d 528 (1967)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. BEDFORD-NUGENT CORPORATION, Respondent.

No. 15875.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

June 2, 1967.

Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Robert A. Giannasi, Atty., Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Elliott Moore, Atty., National Labor Relations Bd., Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Harry P. Dees, Joseph A. Yocum, Arthur R. Donovan, Evansville, Ind., for respondent, Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn, Evansville, Ind., of counsel.

Before CASTLE and FAIRCHILD, Circuit Judges, and MAJOR, Senior Circuit Judge.

CASTLE, Circuit Judge.

This case is before the Court upon the petition of the National Labor Relations Board to enforce an order of the Board issued against the respondent, Bedford-Nugent Corporation, on February 25, 1965. The Board's decision and order are reported at 151 NLRB 216.

The Board found that Bedford-Nugent violated Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, by discriminatorily selecting twenty-one pro-union employees for layoff between June 25 and July 6, 1962. By its order the Board requires the company to make these individuals whole for any loss of pay they may have suffered by reason of the discrimination against them, from the date of their layoffs until the date of the company's cessation of business, July 31, 1962.

In its reported decision and order, the Board approves the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the hearing examiner, and adopts them as its own.

Bedford-Nugent's opposition to the enforcement petition is grounded on its contention that the Board's position that "the only discernible pattern in the layoffs was the union affiliation of those selected" is not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole and in the light of uncontroverted evidence which opposes the Board's view.

We have carefully examined the record, and appraising it on the basis of such controlling standard, as we must, (Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456; N. L. R. B. v. Audio Industries, Inc., 7 Cir., 313 F.2d 858) we find no basis for upsetting the findings and conclusions adopted by the Board.

The layoffs occurred after picketing of the company's premises by union¹ adherents had been resumed on June 25, 1962, following a week-long strike. During the first week of picketing, the company laid off 19 employees, and by July 6, 1962, it had laid off 2 more. All had been members of the union, which, since September of 1961 had been engaged in organizational efforts. All had participated in a September 1961 strike, and many had engaged in earlier picketing during April 1962. Of the 25 unit employees who remained on the company's payroll as of July 30, 1962, only 1 was an adherent of the union. During July, some 18 of the approximately 25 unit employees remaining on the payroll worked regularly, many accumulating substantial amounts of overtime. Aside from the 1 union adherent, the unit employees who had not been laid off were either not specifically identified with the union or were former members who had repudiated the union.

Shortly after the June picketing began, the company vice-president, Nugent, made statements to supervisory personnel that "he was going to close down" and that "he wasn't going to have the union telling him what to do". In April 1962, he had told a company supervisor that "he would do anything he could to get around the union". After the June picketing began a company superintendent, in a conversation with employees, made the statement that the company would have no trouble if it "got rid of" all...