NLRB v. Murray-Ohio Manufacturing Company, 16413.
| Decision Date | 19 April 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 16413.,16413. |
| Citation | 358 F.2d 948 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. MURRAY-OHIO MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Robert B. Schwartz, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Nancy M. Sherman, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., on brief, for petitioner.
Frank A. Constangy, Atlanta, Ga., Constangy & Prowell, Atlanta, Ga., on brief, for respondent.
Before WEICK, Chief Judge, O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judge, and CECIL, Senior Circuit Judge.
This case is before us on the petition of the Board for enforcement of its order issued against Murray-Ohio Manufacturing Company. Its decision and order are reported at 148 NLRB No. 153.
The Board found that during an intensive organizational campaign by a labor union the company violated Section 8(a) (1) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, (29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq.) by interrogating its employees about their own and other employees' union activities, by threatening an employee with the loss of his job unless he abandoned the union, and by requesting an employee to speak to a co-employee about the union and to ascertain how he felt about it. The Board further found that the company violated Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the Act by discharging a timekeeper named Malcolm Tarkington, because of his union activity. The order of the Board required the company to cease and desist from engaging in the above unfair labor practices and to reinstate Tarkington with back pay.
Upon a review of the record we are of the opinion that there was substantial evidence to support the finding that the company violated Section 8(a) (1) of the Act in the interview by its foreman Umphrey with the employee, L. V. Kelly, and in the tape recorded conference between Personnel Director Smotherman and employee Howell. Both of these interviews were coercive in nature and constituted an interference with rights of the employees guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act. We find nothing wrong, however, in the interviews between Umphrey and Webb and General Foreman Jasper Sayre and Webb. Both Umphrey and Sayre merely exercised their right of free speech and their conversations involved no coercion, interference or threats.
The discharge of Tarkington requires consideration not only of the evidence, but of inferences which the Board drew therefrom.
Tarkington had been employed by the company for about five and one-half years. He signed a union authorization card and was actively supporting the union by talking with other employees and distributing authorization cards for their signatures. Hoyt Wright, a union organizer, requested Tarkington to obtain a list of the employees for whom he kept time, and lists from some of the other timekeepers. The union wanted this information so it could contact the employees in connection with its organizational efforts. Tarkington prepared a list of employees in his department from memory without consulting company records. Other timekeepers who were contacted by Tarkington copied the names from the company's time cards. When the company learned of Tarkington's activities relative to the lists of employees, it discharged him for the stated reason, "attempting to obtain unauthorized and confidential data and information from company records."
The hearing examiner credited Tarkington's testimony that he did not know that the employees' names were confidential and had never been so advised by the company, and that he prepared his list of employees from memory. When Tarkington...
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