Ridgely Mfg. Co. v. N.L.R.B., Nos. 73--2230
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia) |
| Writing for the Court | PER CURIAM |
| Citation | 510 F.2d 185,166 U.S.App.D.C. 232 |
| Parties | 88 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3185, 166 U.S.App.D.C. 232, 76 Lab.Cas. P 10,740 RIDGELY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. |
| Decision Date | 21 March 1975 |
| Docket Number | 73--2251,Nos. 73--2230 |
Page 185
76 Lab.Cas. P 10,740
v.
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
District of Columbia Circuit.
Norman Geiger, Brooklyn, N.Y., was on the brief for petitioner.
Peter G. Nash, Gen. Counsel, John S. Irving, Deputy Gen. Counsel, Patrick Hardin, Associate Gen. Counsel, Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, N.L.R.B., and Jay E. Shanklin and Morton Namrow, Attys., N.L.R.B., were on the brief for respondent.
Before RICHARD T. RIVES, * Senior Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, and WRIGHT and McGOWAN, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
At issue in these consolidated direct review proceedings are two orders of the National Labor Relations Board. The first requires the Ridgely Construction Company, of Ridgely, Tennessee, to cease and desist from certain unfair labor practices, and to reinstate with back pay six employees found to have been illegally discharged for union activities. See 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3) (1970). The second order is similar, requiring the reinstatement of a seventh employee. The Company seeks review of the orders; the Board has cross-applied for enforcement. For the reasons appearing hereinafter, we affirm the Board and grant enforcement.
The Company's objections are quite narrow. It apparently does not challenge the Board's findings of unfair labor practices except with respect to the discharge of the six employees named in the first order. Its only other contention is that, subsequent to the discharges, it extended to all seven employees valid offers of reinstatement which tolled the period for which back pay is due.
There is no issue as to the applicable law. A discharge is unlawful if motivated even in part by anti-union animus; the presence of such a motivation is a factual matter which the Board may resolve upon circumstantial evidence on the record as a whole. See, e.g., Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB,340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951); Singer Co. v. NLRB, 429 F.2d 172, 179 (8th Cir. 1970); Food Store Employees Local 347 v. NLRB, 135 U.S.App.D.C. 341, 418 F.2d 1177, 1181 (1969). The evidence before the Board substantially supports the result reached by it. 1
Page 187
The union election which allegedly occasioned the discharges in question also provoked a number of other labor violations by the Company around the same time. During the month prior to the election, a Company representative made several improperly coercive speeches to employees regarding union representation. The Company also withheld a customary semi-annual wage increase for the stated reason that union activity made it impossible.
Against this background the Board received evidence of the following facts with respect to individual discharges:
(a) Doris and Shawanne Cook, employees of the Company with good work records, were married to two brothers, Leroy and Billy Joe Cook. The brothers were also employed by the Company. Their support for the union was active and well-known. Leroy was himself expressly threatened with firing for his union activities. A Company representative stated to a fellow employee on another occasion that both brothers, along with their wives, would be fired because of their work for the union. Though the men were not discharged, their wives lost their jobs during the week before the union election.
(b) Betty Cook, the mother of Leroy and Billy Joe, also had a good work record. On the day after the discharge of one of her daughters-in-law she complained of it to the plant manager. He denied that it was because of her son's union activities. She informed him that she also was for the union. The next day she was discharged.
(c) Ida Lou Williams, and her daughter, Mary Terry,...
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