NLRB v. Ralph Printing and Lithographing Company

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
Citation379 F.2d 687
Docket NumberNo. 18570.,18570.
PartiesNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. RALPH PRINTING AND LITHOGRAPHING COMPANY, Respondent.
Decision Date06 July 1967

Nancy M. Sherman, Atty., N.L.R.B., for petitioner and Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel and Anthony J. Obadal, Atty. for N.L.R.B., were on the brief.

John E. Tate of Nelson, Harding, Acklie, Leonard & Tate, Omaha, Neb., for respondent and filed brief.

Before MATTHES, BLACKMUN and MEHAFFY, Circuit Judges.

MATTHES, Circuit Judge.

This case is before the Court upon the petition of the National Labor Relations Board, pursuant to Section 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-168 (1959), for enforcement of its order issued June 6, 1966 against Respondent Ralph Printing and Lithographing Company. The Board's decision and order are reported at 158 N.L.R.B. No. 128. No jurisdictional issue is presented. We modify the order as hereinafter set out and grant enforcement of it as so modified.

Respondent, a Nebraska corporation, is engaged in the business of commercial printing and lithographing in Omaha, Nebraska. During September, 1964 the Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union, AFL-CIO, Local 38 L,1 began a union organizational drive among Respondent's employees. On the evening of September 18, 1964 the Union representative, Melford L. Galbraith, held a meeting with the employees and distributed authorization cards to them. Galbraith explained that in signing the authorization cards the employees were authorizing the Union to act as their collective bargaining representative, that the cards would enable him to demand recognition, and that if recognition were granted the Union would proceed to negotiate with Respondent. Nineteen authorization cards were signed by the employees on September 18th. During the next ten days Galbraith obtained a total of 24 authorization cards in a unit later found to comprise a total of 26 employees.2

Armed with his authorization cards Galbraith conferred with Roy and John Ralph, Respondent's President and Vice-President, and requested recognition for the Union. He asserted that his Union held signed authorization cards from a substantial majority of Respondent's employees, numbering over 90%. Roy Ralph refused the request for recognition and expressed a desire to proceed only through a Board election. Galbraith offered to submit the authorization cards to a mutually acceptable third party to determine the Union's majority status, but Ralph declined the offer and reaffirmed his intention to await the outcome of a Board election. Galbraith informed the Ralphs that his Union represented all of Respondent's production and maintenance employees, including pressmen. Mr. John Ralph denied the purport of this conversation and stated that Galbraith did not specify the composition of the unit he was seeking to represent, and thus left him in doubt as to whether office-clericals, supervisors and certain other employees were included in the unit sought to be represented.

On the same day, after the conference, Galbraith filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board requesting a representation election among Respondent's employees. On October 29th, a pre-election hearing was held and on November 20th, the Regional Director ordered an election to be conducted on January 7, 1965.

Subsequently on December 24, 1964 Respondent's employees, whose normal quitting time was 4:00 P.M., worked through their half-hour lunch period and were released at 1:00 P.M. in the afternoon without loss of pay. Similarly on December 31, 1964 the employees were released at 3:00 P.M., one hour early. Several employees disclosed that Respondent had no set policy on the amount of time off granted on a day preceding a holiday, but that such time off fluctuated with the amount of work orders that had to be filled. The past practice of Respondent, however, as revealed by the testimony of employees Ray Angus and Virgil DeMars, was usually to grant approximately an hour off before Christmas, and little or no time off prior to New Years.

On January 4, 1965, three days before the scheduled election, Supervisor Donald Higgins approached Ray Angus, a linotype operator employed by Respondent for ten years, at his work station and inquired whether Angus intended to attend the union meeting that night. Upon being advised that Angus would attend, Higgins purportedly asked Angus so advise him as to who was present at the meeting. Angus further testified that Higgins requested him to ask certain questions at the meeting relating to the Union's contract with another printing company. Angus further asserted that on January 6th Higgins thanked him for asking several questions at the meeting. Higgins categorically denied having any such conversation with Angus.

The following morning, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Company, Sylvia Fitch Middleton, showed Angus a pink scratch pad on which were written the names of twelve employees who had attended the union meeting the previous evening. Angus testified that Miss Fitch asked him to verify the correctness of the list, and he replied that it was correct. Miss Fitch also inquired of Angus whether an employee, John Dormer, or any of the "new help" attended the union meeting. Subsequently, Angus told three of his fellow employees that the Company had a list of those who had attended the meeting. Miss Fitch repudiated the existence of any such list and denied questioning any employee with reference to his or his co-worker's union activities.

On January 7th the Board conducted an election among Respondent's eligible maintenance and production employees. The Union lost by a narrow margin of 13 to 12. Angus' undisputed testimony, corroborated in substance by Virgil DeMars, was to the effect that immediately following the balloting, Vice-President John Ralph happily announced the results of the election, and thanked those employees who had confidence in voting for the Company. Ralph asserted there would be no changes within thirty days and that it would take that long before there would be any improvements. On January 12th, the Union filed timely objections to conduct affecting results of the election. During the pendency of these objections Respondent's employees received a notice on February 12th that they would receive a ten cent per hour increase in pay effective February 19th.

On the above facts the Board found that Respondent violated Section 8(a) (1) of the Act by coercively interrogating employee Angus about his union activities, by requesting him to report on the union activities of his fellow employees, and by creating the impression of surveillance among the employees. The Board also found that Respondent violated Section 8(a) (1) by granting its employees benefits prior to the election and by promising and granting them benefits immediately thereafter, during the period in which objections to the election could be filed. The Board further concluded that Respondent violated Section 8(a) (5) and (1) by refusing to bargain with the Union on or after October 5th, at which time the Union represented a majority of its employees.

The Board ordered Respondent to cease and desist from the unfair labor practices found, and, upon request, to recognize and bargain collectively with the Union.

SECTION 8(a) (1) — INTERROGATION AND IMPRESSION OF SURVEILLANCE.

Contrary to Petitioner's intimation, the record in this case does not disclose a background of open hostility to the Union by the Respondent. These alleged Section 8(a) (1) violations are based almost exclusively on the testimony of a single employee, Ray Angus, whose testimony was controverted throughout by several of Respondent's witnesses. We are mindful, however, that questions of credibility are primarily a matter for Board determinations and not for this Court. N. L. R. B. v. Comfort, Inc., 365 F.2d 867, 871 (8th Cir. 1966); N. L. R. B. v. Morrison Cafeteria Co. of Little Rock, Inc., 311 F.2d 534, 538 (8th Cir. 1963).

Accepting Angus' version of the situation, on a single occasion one of Respondent's supervisors, Donald M. Higgins, inquired of Angus' union activities, and asked him to report to the Company on the union activities of his co-workers. An employer's interrogation of its employees, however, is not unlawful per se, unless conducted with such anti union animus as to be coercive in nature. Higgins' interrogation of Angus, not in itself threatening or coercive, would not violate Section 8(a) (1) unless it were conducted against a background of employer hostility and discrimination towards unionization, such as would induce in its employees a fear of reprisal for lawfully pursuing their union activities. Banner Biscuit Company v. N. L. R. B., 356 F.2d 765, 769-70 (8th Cir. 1966); N. L. R. B. v. Ritchie Manufacturing Company, 354 F. 2d 90, 99 (8th Cir. 1965). Cf. N. L. R. B. v. Morris Novelty Co., Inc., 378 F.2d 1000 (8th Cir. June 19, 1967). The circumstances surrounding Higgins' interrogation negative any inference of coercion. The questioning of Angus was not part of any employer plan of systematic intimidation of its employees, but at best was isolated and casual in nature. The questioning, moreover, was totally devoid of any coercive statements, which are usually characteristic of an unlawful interrogation. This isolated form of interrogation, we believe, was insufficient to violate the rights of Respondent's employees under Section 8(a) (1). In summary, we believe that the Board's finding of a coercive interrogation is not supported by substantial evidence in the record.

We are not prepared, however, to accord similar protection for the more aggravated demeanor of Miss Fitch. Her conduct, we feel, inhibited the employees' pursuit of their union activities. Miss Fitch attempted to verify on...

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