Saginaw Furniture Shops, Inc. v. NLRB, 14602.

• Decision Date: 12 April 1965
• Docket Number: No. 14602.,14602.
• Citation: 343 F.2d 515
• Parties: SAGINAW FURNITURE SHOPS, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

343 F.2d 515 (1965)

SAGINAW FURNITURE SHOPS, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.

No. 14602.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

February 15, 1965.

Rehearing Denied April 12, 1965.

Harold I. Stickler, Paul Stickler, Philip C. Lederer, Chicago, Ill., Stickler & Lederer, Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.

Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Leonard M. Wagman, Atty., National Labor Relations Bd., Washington, D. C., Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Warren M. Davison, Joseph C. Thackery, Attys., National Labor Relations Bd., for respondent.

Before DUFFY, SCHNACKENBERG, and SWYGERT, Circuit Judges.

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Saginaw Furniture Shops, Inc. manufactures televisions and similar items of furniture. Its main office is in Chicago. Its factory is located at Saginaw Michigan, and employs about 325 persons.

On April 2, 1964, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to cease and desist from engaging in certain unfair labor practices and from interfering in any other manner with its employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The Board also ordered the reinstatement with back pay of four discharged employees. Petitioner seeks review of the order.

The trial examiner found the company had violated section 8(a) (1) of the act in numerous ways and had discharged four employees in violation of section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the act. The Board adopted the examiner's findings and affirmed his rulings. The Board's decision is reported at 146 N.L.R.B. No. 78.

The principal issues are whether the trial examiner was entitled to credit the testimony upon which he based his findings and whether substantial evidence on the whole record supports the Board's decision.

Petitioner contends that there is greater reason to accept the testimony of its witnesses than of those called by the General Counsel. If we were to decide the case de novo upon our reading of a dry record, we might be inclined to accept petitioner's version of the facts. Our role, however, is limited. Where there is a conflict in the testimony of witnesses, the determination of credibility is peculiarly for the trial examiner as the trier of facts. Sunshine Biscuits, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 274 F.2d 738 (7th Cir. 1960). Moreover, if the credited testimony supports conflicting inferences, the inferences drawn by the examiner must be accepted if reasonable when considered in the light of the entire record. Sunshine Biscuits, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., supra. The briefs and oral argument present us with two hopelessly irreconcilable versions of what took place at the Saginaw factory. Consequently we are constrained to resolve the questions before us by utilizing the norms we have just stated.

To state in detail the examiner's version of the facts and then contrast it with petitioner's version would extend our opinion to excessive length. We shall, however, undertake a brief résumé of the "facts" as gleaned from the record and the determinations of the trial examiner from credited testimony.

For a number of years Saginaw Woodworkers Federation, Local 1, had been the bargaining representative for the employees in the Saginaw factory. In November, 1961, District 50, United Mine Workers of America, was certified by the Board as the representative of the employees and then negotiated a one-year contract with petitioner.

Herbert J. Stalker was hired in August, 1962 as personnel director of petitioner. From the start, according to the General Counsel's evidence, Stalker initiated a program to replace District 50 by Local 1. Learning that job seeker Wiezycki and Beach were in financial distress, Stalker hired them and then covertly used them to check on the union sympathies of their fellow employees. He also requested them to assist him in getting rid of District 50. As informers they made daily visits to Stalker's office. Both reported what they learned about the union activities of their fellow workmen. Stalker asked Wiezycki what the sentiment was among the employees when Local 1 cards were being passed around by an organization committee. Wiezycki said about fifty had signed cards. Thereupon, Stalker gave Wiezycki some of the cards and asked that he get them signed and then return them to him secretly.

Testimony submitted to the hearing examiner indicated that Stalker proposed to Wiezycki that the latter attempt to get Don Stack, an employee and the president of the District 50 local, to smoke a cigarette in the washroom. This would have been contrary to company rules and would have constituted sufficient basis to discharge Stack. The examiner also credited testimony to the effect that Stalker told Wiezycki to spread the rumor that if District 50 remained the bargaining agent, the owners of the plant would lock it up. Pursuant to this plan, Stalker also told Wiezycki that he was going to have a piece of equipment packaged, crated, and placed where all could see it; that it would bear a Kentucky address; and that Wiezycki should stand by the package and tell the employees "there goes the first piece."

The foregoing is only a partial account of Stalker's efforts to replace...