National Labor Relations Board v. Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock

511 F.2d 153
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 1975
Docket24511
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 511 F.2d 153 (National Labor Relations Board v. Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock, 511 F.2d 153 (5th Cir. 1975).

Opinion

BELL, Circuit Judge:

On April 5, 1967 this court enforced an order of the National Labor Relations Board directing respondent to cease and desist from refusing to bargain in good faith with Local 826, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO, from threatening its employees with loss of jobs, and from otherwise interfering with the attempts of the union at collective bargaining. NLRB v. Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock, No. 24,511, April 5, 1967 (unpublished).

On April 6, 1972, this court entered its order adjudging respondent in civil contempt for failing to comply with the April 5, 1967 order. NLRB v. Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock, 5 *154 Cir., 1972, 458 F.2d 453. The thrust of the civil contempt adjudication was failure of respondent to bargain in good faith. We found that (1) respondent failed to negotiate with the union concerning employer evaluation standards for determining merit pay increases; (2) respondent insisted on unilateral control of all aspects of wage and working conditions; and (3) engaged in a process of surface bargaining condemned in the April 5, 1967 order.

Respondent was required to purge itself of civil contempt in the following terms:

“Further ordered that respondent, Johnson Manufacturing Company of Lubbock, as the Company and acting through its officers, agents, successors and assigns, shall forthwith purge itself of such contempt by:
1. Ceasing and desisting from:
(a) refusing to bargain in good faith with Local 826, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO, hereinafter the Union, as the exclusive representative of all respondent’s employees as set forth in the appropriate bargaining unit.
(b) violating in any other manner this Court’s Order of April 5, 1967.
2. Taking the following affirmative action in purgation:
(1) Upon request, bargain collectively with the Union named herein, as the exclusive representative of the bargaining unit.
(b) Specifically, in the course of such bargaining negotiations, if requested,
(1) eliminate its continued and rigid insistence upon unilateral, complete, and final control over all aspects of wage and working conditions, found by the Board to be unreasonable, and
(2) eliminate its continued and rigid insistence upon Union relinquishment of statutory rights of effective participation in grievance negotiation and the settlement of labor disputes, and of effective representation in consideration of changes in working conditions by the Company during the course of Agreement.
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Further ordered that the Company begin immediately, in connection with its merit wage adjustment plan, the specific evaluation of all employees making available to the Union these evaluations in substance and result, and promptly enter into good faith negotiations with the Union for a restructuring of the standards of employee evaluation used under the merit wage adjustment plan to the end that the union may be effective as the bargaining agent in the area of merit increases.”

On October 5, 1972, the board was again before this court alleging that respondent had failed to comply with the April 6, 1972 order. The company’s president, Robert C. Johnson, Jr., and its personnel manager, R. G. Box, were named individually in the complaint. The board prayed for a writ of body attachment as to them until respondent complied with the order, together with the imposition of fines.

After requiring responses the matter was referred to a special master for the purpose of receiving evidence on issues presented and to report to the court. The matter is now before the court on the report of the master.

We have carefully considered the comprehensive report including the findings of fact and conclusions of law contained therein as well as the record made before the master. We find ample support in the record for the findings of fact and no error in the conclusions of law. In sum, we conclude that respondent and its president are in flagrant contempt of the April 6, 1972 order of this court. 1

*155 Respondent was directed by our orders in 1967 and 1972 to cease and desist from refusing to bargain in good faith. The master found that respondent and its president had nevertheless engaged in mere surface bargaining. The record makes this clear beyond peradventure

They were required to eliminate management’s insistence upon unilateral control of all aspects of wage and working conditions which in turn meant union relinquishment of the statutory right to participate in grievance negotiations and the settlement of labor disputes with respect to changes in working conditions. The master’s report makes plain this direction has been ignored in material part.

In addition, respondent failed to comply with the April 6, 1972 order as that order was concerned with the administration of the company’s merit wage adjustment plan. Respondent was required by the order to (1) make a specific evaluation of its employees; (2) make available to the union the evaluations in substance and result; and (3) promptly enter into good faith negotiations with the union for a restructuring of the standards of employee evaluations used under the merit wage adjustment plan. Instead, respondent through its counsel and Box, the personnel officer, backed and filled in a farcical manner with the end result of substantial evasion of the order. 2

Some of respondent’s employees engaged in a strike beginning August 10, 1972 because of the failure of respondent to bargain in good faith. This strike was clearly an unfair labor practice strike. However, on September 18, 1972, respondent granted wage increases restricted to nonstriking employees, under the guise of not being able to evaluate those employees on strike.

One employee, Viyer Salinas, was relegated to assembly line work from his easier test stand job after being elected a union committeeman and attending bargaining sessions. The master found Salinas’ treatment to be punitive and retaliatory for Salinas’ union activities. This finding is supported by substantial evidence.

The employees in question have been without the union representation which the law accords them since April 5, 1967. This has been made possible by a recalcitrant employer taking advantage of the delays which inhere in the processes of law and particularly in labor law. It may be said however, that although the law does move slowly, a day of judgment will eventually come. We affirm the master’s recommendation that respondent and its president be adjudicated in civil contempt of this court. We thus turn to the remedy to be invoked in concluding this matter.

The master recommended a contempt adjudication and purgatory order in precise terms.

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Bluebook (online)
511 F.2d 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-johnson-manufacturing-company-of-lubbock-ca5-1975.