RIDGEWOOD MANAGEMENT COMPANY v. NLRB
| Decision Date | 13 May 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 26151.,26151. |
| Citation | 410 F.2d 738 |
| Parties | RIDGEWOOD MANAGEMENT COMPANY, Inc., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. RIDGEWOOD MANAGEMENT COMPANY, Inc., Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
John H. Benckenstein, Lipscomb Norvell, Jr., of Benckenstein & Norvell, Beaumont, Tex., for petitioner.
Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate Gen. Counsel, Herbert Fishgold, Leonard M. Wagman, Attys., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before AINSWORTH and SIMPSON, Circuit Judges, and MITCHELL, District Judge.
Rehearing Denied and Rehearing En Banc Denied May 13, 1969.
This action is before the Court upon the petition of Ridgewood Management Company, Inc. (Employer) to review and modify an order of the National Labor Relations Board. The Board has cross-petitioned for enforcement. After a thorough consideration of the Employer's contentions, we hold that there is substantial evidence to support the Board's findings and conclusions.
The Hotel, Motel, Restaurant and Club Employees Union, Local 750 (Union), began a campaign to organize Petitioner's employees in February 1967. On March 14, 1967, Clay Kinnaird, president and general manager of Ridgewood, became aware of rumors of union activity and held a meeting which was attended by some ten or eleven dining-room employees. According to the testimony of employees Barber, Day, Shafer and Olsen, which was credited by the Trial Examiner and the Board, Kinnaird questioned the employees collectively and individually about their union activities, including the signing of authorization cards and the payment of initiation fees. Although two employees had joined the Union, all of the employees denied having engaged in union activity. In addition, Kinnaird deprecated persons who belong to unions, and added that the employees would be required to remain in the room until he "got to the bottom" of the Union problem.
Employer interrogation of employees is not illegal per se, and such interrogation is proscribed by Section 8 (a) (1) of the National Labor Relations Act "Only when the interrogation tends to restrain, coerce or interfere with employees in the exercise of their rights under the Act * * *." N. L. R. B. v. Sunnyland Packing Company, 5 Cir., 1966, 369 F.2d 787, 793. See also N. L. R. B. v. Neuhoff Bros., Packers, Inc., 5 Cir, 1967, 375 F.2d 372, 377. See generally Note, Labor-Law — Employer Interrogation, 29 La.L.Rev. 154 (1968). However, interrogation by an employer may be a very subtle weapon for interfering with employee rights, and hence, in assessing the impact of the interrogation, courts must examine, inter alia, the identity of the questioner, the background of the employer's attitude toward the Union, the method of interrogation, and whether or not intimidation was evidenced by untruthful employee answers. N. L. R. B. v. Camco, Incorporated, 5 Cir., 1965, 340 F.2d 803, 804; N. L. R. B. v. Milco, Inc., 2 Cir., 1968, 388 F.2d 133, 137. Applying these criteria to the facts of this case, and considering that credibility choices are within the province of the Board, see, e. g., Independent, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 5 Cir., 1969, 406 F.2d 203, 205, the Board's cease and desist order is supported by substantial evidence. See also N. L. R. B. v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, 5 Cir., 1965, 346 F.2d 936, 938. Having reached this conclusion, it is unnecessary that we pass on the question of whether the Employer failed specifically to challenge the Trial Examiner's findings and conclusions before the Board so as to preclude the Employer from raising the interrogation issue here. 29 U.S.C. § 160(e). See, e. g., N. L. R. B. v. Lone Star Textiles, Inc., Guadalupe Val. Cotton M.D., 5 Cir., 1967, 386 F.2d 535, 537.
Finally, the Board found that the Employer had violated...
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