National Labor Relations Board v. Gottfried Baking Co., Inc.

210 F.2d 772
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 17, 1954
Docket151, Docket 22829
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 210 F.2d 772 (National Labor Relations Board v. Gottfried Baking Co., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Gottfried Baking Co., Inc., 210 F.2d 772 (2d Cir. 1954).

Opinions

[775]*775MEDINA, Circuit Judge.

This case arose out of charges filed by one Max Winzelberg, a bakery route driver, against (1) Bakery and Pastry Drivers and Helpers Union, Local No. 802, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL, hereinafter referred to as the “Union,” of which he was a member; (2) Gottfried Baking Co., Inc., hereinafter referred to as “Gottfried,” his former employer; and (3) R. K. Baking Corp., hereinafter referred to as “R. K”, another bakery company. The three cases were consolidated for the purposes of hearing. The National Labor Relations Board substantially adopted the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the trial examiner as set forth in the intermediate report. The Board’s decision and order are reported in 103 N.L.R.B. No. 3.

Gottfried is a New York corporation with its office and plants in New York City. It is engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution of baked products. During the course of its operations it makes substantial purchases and sales outside the State of New York.

R. K. is a New York corporation with its principal office and plant in New York City. It is engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution of pastry, cakes and other baked products. During the year 1951, shipments to R. K. from or through states other than the State of New York amounted to $86,038.13. During the same period, goods originating outside the State of New York, but delivered to R. K. out of stock held in the State of New York, amounted to $237,-477.21. R. K.’s finished products were sold locally to numerous businesses and organizations concededly engaged in interstate commerce.1

R. K. has negotiated a collective bargaining contract with the Union as a member of an employer association created for that purpose, whose membership included baking companies which individually sold and transported annually to out-of-state purchasers goods valued in excess of $100,000.2 The facts relating to the formation and operation of this association are as follows:

Sometime in May 1948, several employers negotiating collective contracts with the Union joined together under the leadership of one Morris Gertner, a flour merchant with whom they all had business dealings. Their express purpose was to advise and consult among themselves respecting the negotiations with the Union, and to establish, both among themselves and in their common negotiations with the Union, a unity of action in arriving at identical contracts which each would sign with the Union. Prior to the forming of this organization, known as the Cake Bakers’ Association, the individual employers had already commenced negotiations with the Union, but they had no understanding among themselves that they would stand together, or that anyone might act as spokesman for the others. Upon its formation, however, the Association elected officers, including the president of R. K., who was elected vice-president, to speak in the Association’s behalf, and it retained an attorney to represent it at the bargaining conferences. Each member company was assessed a proportionate amount to defray attorney’s fees and incidental expenses, and was likewise required to post security in the amount of $5,000. to guarantee its compliance with the negotiation poli-[776]*776cíes and eventual contract provisions arrived at with the approval of at least two-thirds of the membership. Despite the Union’s reluctance to deal with the employers through the Association or through the Association’s attorney and a brief strike called to enforce these objections, the Union and the Association executed an agreement on July 15, 1948. The document specifically identified the Association as a party to the contract and was signed by the Association’s officers as well as by the representatives of the individual companies.

The negotiations conducted in 1950 followed the same pattern as those carried on in 1948, except that the Association was not represented by counsel, and there was no express understanding, as there was in 1948, that the individual companies would be bound to terms acceptable to the others of the group. Accordingly, no security was required to be posted. Otherwise, the bargaining conferences proceeded in the same manner as the earlier ones. Although in the negotiations there was no single representative for the employer group, the negotiations were conducted at meetings at which all the employers were represented, and the representatives of each employer in the group executed an identical contract with the Union on May 24,1950. Despite the Union’s insistence again at these negotiations that it would not bargain with the employers as an association or group, this contract, like the one executed on July 15, 1948, specifically included the Cake Bakers’ Association as a party to the agreement.

Contracts covering the terms and conditions of employment of R. K.’s drivers were executed by R. K. and the Union on July 15, 1948, and on May 24, 1950, respectively. The first contract expired by its terms on January 31, 1950,3 and the second contract expired on October 15, 1951. The Union also negotiated and executed contracts with Gottfried covering the terms and conditions of employment of Gottfried’s drivers on September 30, 1948, and “somewhere around July, 1951.” By its terms, the first of these contracts expired on January 31, 1951, and the second contract expired on October 31, 1952, subsequent to the hearing before the trial examiner in this proceeding.

Each of the three contracts in issue in this proceeding contained identical provisions dealing with union security, which, in pertinent part, were as follows:

“Recognition

(a) The employer agrees to hire only members of the Union who shall be in good standing and carry regular paid-up working books of the Union. ****-»#

“Replacements

“(a) With respect to replacements or new employees, the Employer will immediately notify the Union of its needs and the Union will make every effort to supply the Employer with suitable and competent men.

“(b) After a satisfactory interview, the applicant is to be given a thirty (30) day trial period, and, if, within the said trial period, the applicant proves unsatisfactory to the Employer, the Employer may then ask for a replacement.

“(c) In the event that the Union shall be unable to furnish help or replacements requested by the Employers, the Employers shall then have the right to make such replacements. In this event, the Employers agree that such non-union help shall become members of the Union [777]*777in thirty (30) days subject to its rules and regulations. In the event of the failure or refusal of the employees to become members of the Union within thirty (30) days, [or rejection of the membership application by the Union] 4 such non-union employees shall be forthwith discharged by the Employer.

******

“Union Security

“If, with respect to any Employer who is a party to this agreement, the closed shop is in conflict with the law, then the union shop shall prevail in such case together with such additional provisions for union security as shall be legally permissible, it being the intention of the parties to grant the maximum union security permitted by law. * * * ”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 F.2d 772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-gottfried-baking-co-inc-ca2-1954.