Winter Garden Citrus Pr. Coop. v. National Lab. Rel. Bd.
| Decision Date | 11 January 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 15879.,15879. |
| Citation | 238 F.2d 128 |
| Parties | WINTER GARDEN CITRUS PRODUCTS COOPERATIVE, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
E. Kontz Bennett, Waycross, Ga., for petitioner.
Abraham Siegel, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., David P. Findling, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Theophil C. Kammholz, Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., Frederick U. Reel, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before TUTTLE, CAMERON and JONES, Circuit Judges.
Winter Garden Citrus Products Co-Operative petitions for a review of an order of the National Labor Relations Board1 requiring petitioner to cease and desist from certain unfair labor practices and to reinstate striking employees to their former jobs, such reinstatement being based upon its determination that the strike involved was caused in part by these unfair labor practices. The question before us is whether there is substantial evidence in the record, considered as a whole, to support the Board's findings and order with respect to the separate violations dealt with.
Petitioner is a Florida corporation engaged in the processing of citrus fruits, operating upon a seasonal basis. The peak runs from about December 1st to June 1st, with a short lull in March between the early and late crops. In December, 1953 Mr. E'Dalgo, representing the American Federation of Labor, began organizational activities at the plant of petitioner. In March following, a consent election was held resulting in certification by the Board of the union as the bargaining representative of the employees. Negotiations for a contract between the Company and the union were begun March 17th and continued through a number of meetings until April 21st, when a strike was called.
The General Counsel introduced testimony from which the Trial Examiner found that the employer demonstrated, in the days preceding and immediately following the election, a hostility towards the union and opposition to its coming into the plant. He also produced witnesses who testified that the employer, following the seasonal lay-off coming shortly after the election, made effective without consultation with the union, rules of work which had not theretofore been enforced. These related to such matters as smoking and conversing on the job, visits by employees to the coffee shop, increase of work loads and grading down of certain employees. In such instances, non-union workers were accorded better treatment than those who had openly affiliated with the union. We do not feel constrained to disturb the Board's findings and order on these phases of the case, following as it did, in the main, the findings of the Examiner.
These practices had promptly become the subject of complaint asserted through shop stewards selected by the union and distributed throughout the plant. It is apparent from the record that these complaints were of a relatively minor nature which were, in the main, satisfactorily handled (there being no evidence that any had been left unsettled)2 and that the execution of a contract between the employer and the union with satisfactory wage provisions was the central theme which occupied the attention of all concerned. Practically all of the efforts of the organizer were directed towards bringing about a satisfactory arrangement in that vital field, and a number of bargaining sessions were held in connection with it. The labor practices above outlined had never been considered by anyone as having such an importance as possibly to occasion a strike. There must be proof of causal connection between the two to justify the finding that the strike was bottomed in part upon unfair labor practices entitling striking employees to reinstatement.3
A careful reading of the evidence here fails to convince us that the Board had before it substantial evidence upon which to base its finding of such a causal connection. That finding rests upon the testimony of Mr. E'Dalgo, who occupied the unfortunate dual role of advocate and witness in the proceedings before the Examiner. Attributing to his testimony such probative force as it intrinsically commands, but taking into account what detracts from it and relating it to the evidence as a whole, it appears that what he said was so highly improbable as to be counted plainly incredible. Cf. Universal Camera Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 1950, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456.
The strike began April 21st, immediately after the conclusion of a four hour...
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