National Labor Relations Board v. Golden State Bottling Company, Inc., D/B/A Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Sacramento

401 F.2d 454
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 1968
Docket19803
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 401 F.2d 454 (National Labor Relations Board v. Golden State Bottling Company, Inc., D/B/A Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Sacramento) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Golden State Bottling Company, Inc., D/B/A Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Sacramento, 401 F.2d 454 (9th Cir. 1968).

Opinion

THOMPSON, District Judge:

Effective April 1, 1961, the union, P.C.B.C.E., Inc., and Respondent, Golden State Bottling Company, Inc., entered into a collective bargaining agreement covering all non-supervisory employees at the Sacramento, California plant of Golden State Bottling Company, Inc. Membership in the union was limited to employees of Golden State and it was independently operated and controlled, The agreement contained a provision for annual termination on notice. 1 It was renewed in writing on March 31, 1962 with a 12% cents per hour increase in wages. In January, 1963, the union sent timely notice to Golden State demanding negotiations for a new contract,

Negotiations commenced early in March and bargaining continued to the end of the month. No agreement was reached and the negotiations were deadlocked. At the last union meeting, the employer’s proposals were rejected by the union by a tie vote and the employees who rejected the contract signed cards to solicit the Teamsters Union as the bargaining agent. When the employees reported for work the morning of April ^ey were called together by Schilling, General Manager of Golden State, and informed that they would not be permitted to work without a contract. He renewed his proposal, stating that it was best, and f+inal oWer’ and requested the empIoyees to accept xt'

At this point, the union members, disagreeing among themselves about what to do, split into two groups. The smaller group of ten, led by Wagner and by Baker, who was actively promoting the Teamsters Union, and including all the union’s duly elected officers, left the plant and .m?1Iedaround outside the gate. The remaining fourteen employees were once ag.ain gjven the company’s final offer, told that they could not work without a contract, and informed that they could not hold meetings on company property. It was also suggested that there would have to be officers to sign the contract. These employees adjourned to an adjacent alley and one of them conferred with the union attorney by telephone and received advice that they could hold a meeting and elect new officers. They agreed to accept the cornpany offer and elected new officers who signed the contract for the union. The attorney’s advice appears to have been *456 in conflict with the union’s Constitution and by-laws respecting notices of meetings, although Baker’s group was informed of what was going on by members who went back and forth between the two groups.

Of the ten employees who left the plant, all but Baker and Wagner returned to work the same day. Wagner returned to work the next day, April 2, and Baker returned to work on April 3. Thus, all employees eventually accepted the contract terms.

On August 16, 1963, Baker was fired, purportedly for having been caught taking unauthorized time off to purchase football tickets. There had been intervening conversations between Schilling and Baker in which it was suggested that Baker find work elsewhere and Schilling had stated that the March and April incidents had not been forgotten.

As a result of the foregoing, unfair labor practice charges were filed against Respondent. After a hearing and a decision by the trial examiner, the Board made the following findings and conclusions :

“We find, as did the trial examiner, that the Respondent violated Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the Act by denying employment to Wagner on April 1, 1963, and to Baker on April 1 and 2, 1963, because they declined to sign the Respondent’s contract proposal as officers of the incumbent union, P.C.B. C.E., Inc., hereinafter referred to as Union. We further find that the Respondent violated those Sections of the Act by discharging Baker on August 16 because of his said activity in April and his attempt to interest the employees in joining the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
“The Trial Examiner concluded that the Respondent, by its conduct on April 1 in conditioning continued employment of all its employees upon their acceptance of the Respondent’s contract offer and forcing the employees to elect new officers to sign that contract, dominated the administration of the Union in violation of Section 8(a) (2) and (1) of the Act. We agree that the Respondent thereby interfered with the administration of the Union in violation of Section 8(a) (2) and (1) of the Act, but conclude that those acts did not constitute domination of that organization within the meaning of Section 8(a) (2).”

The Board, in addition to ordering Respondent to withdraw recognition from the union temporarily and to reinstate Baker with back pay, and to reimburse Wagner for loss of one day’s wages, ordered Respondent to cease and desist from (a) interfering with the administration of the union or any other labor organization; (b) recognizing anyone but the duly elected union bargaining agent for the purpose of collective bargaining; (c) bargaining with the union until it has been certified as exclusive representative by the National Labor Relations Board; (d) giving effect to the April 1 contract; and (e) discharging, withholding or threatening to withhold employment from any employee for the purpose of compelling him or his bargaining agent to yield to Respondent’s contract proposals. The Board then instituted this action by filing a petition for enforcement of its Order.

We affirm the finding that Respondent violated Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the Act by firing Baker on August 16, 1963. There is, in the record considered as a whole, substantial evidence to support the Board’s finding that Baker’s discharge was motivated by his past union activities on behalf of the Teamsters. National Labor Relations Board v. Sellers (9 CCA 1965), 346 F.2d 625.

The remaining findings of unfair labor practices stem substantially from the April 1 lockout by Golden State. In American Shipbuilding Company v. National Labor Relations Board, 380 U.S. 300, 85 S.Ct. 955, 13 L.Ed.2d 855 (1965), decided after the Board’s decision here, the Supreme Court held that a lockout by an employer used as a means of bring *457 ing pressure on his employees in support of his bargaining position does not violate Section 8(a) (3) and (1) unless there exists a supportable finding of unlawful intent on the part of the employer to injure a labor organization or to evade his duty to bargain collectively, or to discourage union membership.

We do not think that the rationale of the American Shipbuilding case is inapplicable merely because of the charges here under Section 8(a) (2), proscribing employer domination and interference with union administration, which were not present in that case. True, the effect of this lockout was to disrupt the orderly internal functioning of the union, but this result of an otherwise lawful act cannot make that act an unfair labor practice. This was not a necessary consequence of the lockout and the employer’s refusal of work did not necessarily destroy the union’s capacity for effective and responsible representation.

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Bluebook (online)
401 F.2d 454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-golden-state-bottling-company-inc-ca9-1968.