National Labor Relations Board v. Eclipse Moulded Products Co.

126 F.2d 576, 10 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 360, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4213
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 20, 1942
DocketNo. 7848
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 126 F.2d 576 (National Labor Relations Board v. Eclipse Moulded Products Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Labor Relations Board v. Eclipse Moulded Products Co., 126 F.2d 576, 10 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 360, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4213 (7th Cir. 1942).

Opinions

MINTON, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board has filed its petition to enforce the order of the Board dated August 23, 1941. In this order it found the respondent guilty of unfair labor practices, in violation of Sections 8(1), 8(2) and 8(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 158(1-3)., It entered an order requiring the respondent to cease and desist in its interfering, intimidating, and coercing its employees, to withdraw its support from and discontinue its recognition of the company union, and to restore the status and pay of certain employees.

The respondent is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of thermo-setting and thermo-plastic castings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That it is engaged in interstate commerce and that labor trouble in its plant would directly affect interstate commerce is not disputed. The respondent does challenge the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board because the respondent on December 9, 1940 brought a proceeding against the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (hereinafter called the Union) before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, charging that the strike of October 9, 1940 by the employees members of the Union was in violation of the statutes of Wisconsin in that the strike was called without a secret ballot. The Union answered and claimed unfair labor practices, substantially as claimed in the case at bar, and asked the same remedy that has been asked of and granted by the petitioner.

The complaint was served by the petitioner in the instant case on December 20, 1940, eleven days after the proceedings had been started before the Wisconsin Board. Hearings were had by the Wisconsin Board. The record does not disclose anything more as to the proceedings before the Wisconsin Board.

The respondent contends that the jurisdiction of the Wisconsin Board and the petitioner is concurrent and the one that first took jurisdiction should hold it to the exclusion of the other. There is no basis for such contention. The National Labor Relations Board in its proceedings is administering Federal law within the sovereign limits of the Federal Government, while the Wisconsin Board is administering Wisconsin law within the sovereign limits of Wisconsin. There are two sovereignties in the same territorial area.1

There is not necessarily a conflict, as these two Boards operate in the same territory but in different spheres. Until conflict or interference between the two arises, there is no choice to be made as to which shall be paramount. The question of paramountcy is not determined by which one’s jurisdiction was first invoked. Conflict may develop between the action of the State Board and that of the National Labor Relations Board that may require a determination of which shall be paramount. The Wisconsin Board has not asserted its paramountcy, nor has any action of it up to this point conflicted or interfered with the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. That proposition is not presented in this case. The mere filing of proceedings first in the Wisconsin Board and the pendency of the proceedings therein do not operate as a stay, or grounds for stay of proceedings in the National Labor Relations Board. The jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board was not ousted or interfered with by the prior filing of proceedings before the Wisconsin Board and the pendency thereof. National [579]*579Labor Relations Board v. Algoma Net Co., 7 Cir., December 9, 1941, 124 F.2d 730; Wisconsin Labor Relations Board v. Fred Rueping Leather Co., 228 Wis. 473, 279 N.W. 673, 117 A.L.R. 398.

The next question is whether the Board’s order is sustained by sufficient evidence. In such a case, we consider on review the sole question of whether there is substantial evidence to sustain the Board’s order, and in looking to the record, we consider, only such evidence as is favorable to the Board’s order.

The respondent has a background that reflects positive hostility to unionism and especially toward the Union in this case.

In 1937 Armas Karjala, a molder in the respondent’s plant, attended a meeting called to organize respondent’s employees into a union affiliated with the International Association of Machinists. Next morning, he was summoned to the office of Eugene Engman, president of the respondent, and in his presence and that of two other company officials, Karjala was told that there was a slack season coming up and respondent was going to have to let some employees go, that they were going to keep men who ■were loyal, and they wanted to know if Karjala was loyal. Karjala was anxious to keep his job and assured the respondent’s officials that he was loyal. Other employees who attended the meeting were summoned to the office and were told the same thing, and as a result the employees never attended any more meetings of the Machinists’ Union.

Following that significant and’ pointed action of the respondent, one Hoge, an employee, organized the Eclipse Recreation Club. It lasted only six months and the dues were refunded. The complexion of this organization was not clear. It is significant in light of Hoge’s action thereafter in organizing the independent union.

In 1939 several of the molders joined the International Molders’ Union of North America and wore their union buttons in the plant. Upon observing this, the respondent’s president again indicated his opposition to unions.

It was proper , for the Board to consider this background of recent and uniform hostility to organizational activities in appraising the conduct of the respondent in its dealings with its employees under the circumstances involved in this case. The reflections from a background of unfairness and hostility very naturally give color to subsequent actions that must be appraised as to their fairness and goodwill.

September 26, 1940, the respondent’s employees held a meeting at which one Neuschaefer was elected president. On his return to the shop that day, he proudly announced to his foreman, Ralph Engman, that he had been elected president of the Union. Engman became angry, upbraiding Neuschaefer for his ingratitude, as Engman had been responsible for his employment by the respondent. Engman left immediately in the direction of the executive offices and shortly thereafter returned with the president and vice president of the company. The latter two came past Neuschaefer’s machine and stopped momentarily, and then proceeded to the superintendent’s office. Shortly thereafter, president Eugene Eng-man came out of the office, again walked past Neuschaefer’s machine and left the building. He returned almost immediately and again approached Neuschaefer, at which time president Engman accused Neu-schaefer of having fits and told him to close down his machine, that he would have to be examined by a doctor, and for him to return the next day for a doctor’s slip.

That evening Neuschaefer, accompanied by a representative of the Union, called at the plant for the purpose of conferring with president Engman. When Mr. Engman saw them in the plant, he profanely ordered them out, threatening to call the officers of the law and to set upon them a large dog which he held on a leash.

Neuschaefer returned two days later to get his doctor’s slip and was told not to set foot in the plant until his physical fitness had been determined.

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Bluebook (online)
126 F.2d 576, 10 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 360, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-eclipse-moulded-products-co-ca7-1942.