Trw-United Greenfield Div. v. N.L.R.B., TRW-UNITED
| Decision Date | 20 February 1981 |
| Docket Number | TRW-UNITED,No. 79-3456,79-3456 |
| Citation | 637 F.2d 410 |
| Parties | 106 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2768, 90 Lab.Cas. P 12,604 GREENFIELD DIVISION, Petitioner-Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent-Cross-Petitioner. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Constangy, Brooks & Smith, James F. Smith, Charles A. Edwards, Lovic A. Brooks, III, Atlanta, Ga., for petitioner-cross-respondent.
William A. Lubbers, Gen. Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, Robert E. Allen, Acting Associate Gen. Counsel, Robert G. Sewell, Susan L. Dolin, N.L.R.B., Washington, D. C., for respondent-cross-petitioner.
Curtis L. Mack, Director, Region 10, N.L.R.B., Atlanta, Ga., for other interested party.
Stanford, Fagan & Giolito, Morgan C. Stanford, James D. Fagan, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for intervenor International Union et al. (UAW).
Petition for Review and Cross Application for Enforcement of an Order of the National Labor Relations Board.
Before HENDERSON, POLITZ, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
TRW-United Greenfield Division ("the Company") petitions for review, and the National Labor Relations Board cross-petitions for enforcement, of an order of the Board, 245 N.L.R.B. No. 147, adopting the findings and conclusions of the Administrative Law Judge that TRW-United violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. (1976), during unionization efforts among TRW-United's employees at its Evans, Georgia plant. The Board found that the Company committed unfair labor practices by coercively interrogating certain employees concerning their own and other employees' union activities, soliciting an employee to report on the union activities of other employees, and threatening employees with loss of jobs, loss of promotions, plant closure, and a regressive bargaining posture if they unionized. The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW ("the Union") has intervened to seek denial of the Company's petition and enforcement of the Board's order.
The question presented for review is whether the Board's finding that the Company violated § 8(a)(1) of the Act through coercive interrogation, solicitation, and the making of certain threats is supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole.
The Company is an Ohio corporation engaged in diversified manufacturing, with plants located throughout the country. This case involves its plant at Evans, Georgia, which is engaged in the manufacture of high speed cutting tools. The Evans plant commenced operations in 1974, and at times material herein employed in excess of 600 employees.
In January, 1977, the Union began organizational activities among the Company's employees by conducting a meeting and obtaining signatures on a number of authorization cards. After a temporary suspension of overt activity, the Union resumed its organization drive in May of 1977, and, on October 18, 1977, petitioned the Board for a representation election. The election was held on December 16, 1977, and the employees voted 354 to 198 against union representation.
During the three months prior to the election, both the Company and the Union bombarded the employees with campaign propaganda. The Company engaged in a number of instances of conduct which the Administrative Law Judge and the Board found constituted unfair labor practices and which are the subject of the petition and cross-petition before this Court.
In describing these activities chronologically, we are eliminating some instances of interrogation which the Board found coercive but which may not meet the substantial evidence test. There are two instances, however, which clearly meet the test in our view, and we shall describe them and other events related to them in our chronological report.
Around the first of October, Supervisor Archie Burke approached employee Milton Andrews at Andrews' work station and asked him what he thought about the Union and what his reasons were for supporting it. Andrews replied by alluding to job security, access to management regarding employee problems, and better fringe benefits. 1
On October 7, the Company sent a letter to all of its employees which stated in part:
As all of you know, our plant in Plymouth, Michigan was closed and shut down permanently for economic reasons. The UAW Union was in that plant and took money from the paychecks of the employees in dues, fees and other charges.
The Union is attempting to get authorization cards signed which could commit you to obligations and liabilities that could interfere with your job, your pay, and your home life and your future. We, therefore, ask you not to sign a Union card or anything else until and unless you know exactly what your obligations and liabilities will be if you do.
Around the first part of November, employee Milton Andrews was in the office of Safety and Training Director Sam Wyse in the personnel section on a personal matter. With no one else present, Wyse asked Andrews what the employees in the plant thought about him (Wyse). Andrews replied that he "could not tell" Wyse. Wyse then asked Andrews what Andrews thought about the Union. Andrews again responded that there was "nothing (he) could tell" Wyse. Finally, Wyse asked Andrews if he would sit in on union meetings and report back to him what "was going on." Andrews replied that he could not do anything like that.
At some time before Thanksgiving, Director Wyse instructed employee Willie Sutton, a known Union organizer, to clock in and tell his foreman that he would be in Wyse's office for a while. When Sutton came to Wyse's office, Wyse told him that he wanted to talk about the Union. Wyse then asked, "What do you know about the Union, what's happening, ... (T)ell me something." Sutton replied, "(I)t's not for me to tell you what's going on." When Wyse assured Sutton that any reply would be confidential and personal, Sutton asked what he wanted to know. Wyse again asked, "What's happening?" Sutton replied that all he knew was that the employees wanted a union, and that they felt they were not being treated properly. He also alluded to a need for more pay and better sick leave. Wyse responded by saying that the Company was losing money and could not pay more at that time, but that "things are going to get better." Wyse then commented that "there's quite a few people been to the union meetings," to which Sutton replied, "I do not count heads."
On about December 1, Supervisor Louis Eldridge approached employee Andrews at his job when no one else was present and asked him if he had signed a union card. When Andrews replied that he was considering such an act, Eldridge told him that the Union could be of "no significant value" to the employees.
During the two weeks immediately preceding the December 16 election, Operations Manager Roland Springstroh, who was chief operations officer of the Evans plant as well as of two other Company plants, conducted a series of approximately twenty meetings with the employees in which he attempted to dissuade then from unionization. At these meetings, Springstroh made comments from a prepared text and then entertained questions from the employees. At each of these meetings some employee would ask what would be the starting point of contract negotiations in the event of unionization. At this point Springstroh would hold up a blank sheet of paper, which always would be conveniently available, and tell the employees:
(W)e start with a blank sheet of paper, ... we have the union over here and us over here and we start from that ... we'd start from (a blank sheet of paper) ... it would be like we'd be starting from scratch just like this blank sheet of paper.
When an employee asked Springstroh if "you're going to take my benefits away from me" if the Union came in, Springstroh replied, "No, I did not say that;" "(w)hen we sit down at the bargaining table we start from scratch, nothing." At another meeting, Springstroh said, "I'm not saying you will lose any benefits, I'm just saying when we, me and the negotiators, sit down at the negotiating table, we will start off with a blank sheet of paper." Springstroh also told the employees at these meetings that bargaining could go on for months or indefinitely, and gave no assurance that the Company would bargain in good faith.
During the week of the election, Employee Relations Manager Jim Bailey engaged employee Willie Sutton in a lengthy conversation about the Union. In the course of that discussion, Bailey spoke at length about the closings of two other Company plants, one in Detroit, Michigan, which had been represented by the Union, and one in Chicago, which had been unrepresented. Bailey told Sutton that the Detroit plant had been closed for economic reasons in that "they couldn't afford it, they (the Union) was driving 'em out of the business through higher wages, you know, it was outrageous, they was asking for outrageous things." Referring to the Evans, Georgia plant, Bailey then stated, "(W)ell, if they sold us out and didn't want to pay those wages, they could just close down and write it off as a tax loss."
On December 14, Supervisor Tony Leitner engaged in an informal discussion about the Union with a group of employees. When one employee asked Leitner what would happen to their present benefits if the Union came in, Leitner replied, "(W)e would start with a blank sheet of paper." After a comment from the employee, Leitner continued by saying that
Finally, about two days before the election, Director Wyse approached employee Sutton at Sutton's machine and...
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