North Electric Mfg. Co. v. National Labor Relations Bd.

• Decision Date: 12 November 1941
• Docket Number: No. 8742.,8742.
• Citation: 123 F.2d 887
• Parties: NORTH ELECTRIC MFG. CO. v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

123 F.2d 887 (1941)

NORTH ELECTRIC MFG. CO. v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.

No. 8742.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

November 12, 1941.

Clare M. Vrooman and Vernon R. Burt, both of Cleveland, Ohio (Garfield, Cross, Daoust, Baldwin & Vrooman, of Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for petitioner.

Philip G. Phillips, of Cincinnati, Ohio (Robert B. Watts, Laurence A. Knapp, Ernest A. Gross, Lewis M. Gill, and Nanette Dembitz, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for respondent.

Before ALLEN, HAMILTON, and MARTIN, Circuit Judges.

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This case arises upon petition to review and set aside an order issued against petitioner finding that it has interfered with, restrained and coerced its employees in violation of § 8(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(1), and ordering the petitioner to cease and desist from its unfair labor practices and to post the usual notices. In its answer to the petition the Board requests that the order be enforced.

Petitioner, a resident of Galion, Ohio, employs from 300 to 600 employees, and does an interstate business in manufacturing automatic electric selective apparatus, its principal product being automatic telephone systems. The case presents in the main a question of fact, and upon all but one of the main issues the findings of the Board are supported by substantial evidence. These findings therefore are controlling upon this court.

One unusual feature of the case, however, merits particular attention. In March, 1938, officials purporting to represent the International Association of Machinists Local No. 1151 (hereinafter called the union), wrote the petitioner that it had been authorized by approximately seventy per cent. of the employees "that come within" its "jurisdiction" to represent them, and asked for a meeting to negotiate an agreement. The petitioner, which contends that it was not certain that the union represented seventy per cent. of its employees, nor just what group of the employees the union claimed to represent, in response to the union's communication answered, among other things, that several questions required clearing before a conference with the bargaining committee or discussion of the proposed agreement could be held, but acceded to the request for a conference.

The president of the petitioner, Frank McBerty, directed that some of the older employees be asked to attend the conference. He directed specifically that they be selected "without any reference to whether they were suspected of being labor union people or not, making no discrimination of that sort." In addition McBerty installed a microphone in his office and wired it to a loud speaker in an adjacent room where any employee in the plant was permitted to listen to the entire proceeding. When the union officials came to the plant they demanded that the eleven employees present in the office be excluded from the conference. This demand was refused by McBerty, and as the Board found, the meeting, which lasted about an hour and a half, was devoted in large part to an argument between the petitioner and the union as to the propriety of the petitioner's action in bringing in the employees. McBerty explained their presence and stated that other employees would be able to follow the proceedings through the loud speaker, and declared that these arrangements were made in order that the employees could learn in their own way what was going on. The union in no way questioned the truth of these statements but absolutely refused to confer in the presence of the employees. The attitude of the union was expressed by one of the delegation who said "If you want these people to find out as to what goes on * * * let them come to the union meeting and find out." McBerty stated, "I have heard a good many representations that indicate that the truth does not always come out in the union meeting discussions." However, repeated statements were made by McBerty and his attorney as to the willingness of the petitioner to negotiate with the union when the petitioner knew that the union in fact represented a majority of the employees, and the principal union representative, when the conference was broken up, said: "We don't say that you people refused to bargain. We don't say that." The Board concluded that the petitioner had no right to select a group of employees to attend the conference with the union for the purpose of observing and reporting the proceedings to their fellow employees. It declared:

"This action on the part of the respondent petitioner here was in complete derogation of the right of employees to self-organization and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Such interference by an employer with the exercise of rights guaranteed by the Act may not be excused on the ground of the allegedly beneficent motives of the employer. Moreover, the respondent was completely unwarranted in utilizing its meeting with the Union to undermine the confidence of the union members in their representatives and to dissuade other employees from becoming members of the Union. It is apparent, and we find, that this was the effect of and the respondent's purpose in securing and insisting upon the presence of the `observers,' in installing the loud-speaker system and inviting employees to listen in upon the conference, and in casting aspersions on the Union's representatives. Such conduct was expressive of hostility toward the Union, and indicated that the respondent would not meet the Union as party of equal dignity, status, and responsibility even if satisfied that it had been designated by a majority of the employees."

The Board concluded that it was unlawful for the petitioner to question the union's jurisdiction over the employees in its plant; that the choice of a representative by the employees...