National Labor Relations Board v. Swift & Co.

116 F.2d 143, 7 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 562, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 2577
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 20, 1940
DocketNo. 474, Original
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 116 F.2d 143 (National Labor Relations Board v. Swift & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Swift & Co., 116 F.2d 143, 7 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 562, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 2577 (8th Cir. 1940).

Opinion

WOODROUGH, Circuit Judge.

This case comes before the court upon petition by the National Labor Relations Board for the enforcement of its order issued against respondent pursuant to Section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. Respondent is an Illinois corporation, operating a plant at South St. Paul, Minnesota, where the Board found unfair labor practices occurred.

Upon charges filed by the United Packing House Workers Local Industrial Union No. 814, a labor organization, herein called the United, the Board through its regional director issued its complaint against respondent on July 5,1938, alleging in addition to jurisdictional facts that the -respondent had dominated and interfered with the formation and administration of Employees Security Association and its successor, Packing House Employees Union of South St. Paul Local No. 1, labor organizations, both sometimes referred to as the Association, and had contributed financial and other support thereto, and had urged, persuaded and warned its employees against joining the United, in violation of Section 8(1) and (2) of the Act. On July 18, 1938, respondent filed an answer denying the commission of unfair labor practices. Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held from August 8 to 11, 1938, at South St. Paul, Minnesota, before a trial examiner. Full opportunity to be-heard, to examine and cross examine witnesses and to adduce evidence on the issues was afforded. The trial examiner issued his intermediate report, to which exceptions were filed by respondent, and oral argument was had before the Board. On October 9, 1939, the Board issued its decision setting forth its findings of fact, conclusions of law and order. Thereafter, on February 9, 1940, the Board caused notice to be served upon respondent that it would, unless cause to the contrary was shown, amend its decision and order by adding a ruling in effect striking out certain testimony which had been offered on behalf of the Board at the hearing before the examiner and by deleting a certain subsidiary finding included in paragraph III B of the decision. The testimony stricken consisted of the records of Board decisions in other cases against the respondent herein, viz., Nos. C-355, G-484 and R-605, all decided May 20, 1938, and the matter deleted consisted of two sentences and accompanying footnotes as printed at page 13 of 15 N.L.R.B. No. 110.1 After hearing, the Board made and entered the amendments proposed in the notice.

In its response to the petition of the Board herein the respondent prays this court to deny enforcement of the order.

As the decision, findings of fact, conclusions and order of the Board are published in full in 15 N.L.R.B. No. 110, it is unnecessary to repeat them here. The contentions of the respondent are that there is no evidence to support the subsidiary findings of the Board and they are con[145]*145trary to the evidence; that such findings are argumentative and not true findings, and they do not support the ultimate findings that respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (1) of the Act or Section 8 (2) thereof; that there is no evidence to support such findings; that the Board’s amendment of its decision was improper, and that the order is contrary to law in that it is too broad.

The attacks upon the subsidiary findings are developed in the argument upon contentions that the Board has ignored important facts established by uncontradicted testimony; that it has found facts upon contradicted testimony, although its findings are contrary to undisputed testimony; that it has drawn inferences which are not only improper, but likewise in conflict with the uncontradicted testimony. To all of which careful consideration has been given in connection with examination of the extensive record. Such examination leaves no doubt that other and different inferences might have been drawn from the testimony than those drawn by the Board. It is true the Board has not undertaken to set forth in its findings any abstract or summary of all the evidence in the record. It has merely drawn from the whole evidence and presented as subsidiary findings the evidentiary facts upon which it has based its ultimate finding that specified provisions of the Act were violated. It was not incumbent upon the Board to recite all the evidence, or even all undisputed evidence, or the evidence from which inferences opposed to its own might have been drawn. It is hardly possible that any two examiners would express inferences of evidentiary facts drawn from an extended record in identical language. Here the subsidiary findings indicate the evidence from which they are drawn clearly enough to enable the respondent and the court to make the necessary comparison with the record. The respondent has pointed out and argued those claimed to be unsupported or contrary to the evidence. But proceeding, step by step, through the subsidiary findings made by the Board, none has been found without the support of some substantial evidence in the record. The weight to be given the testimony of the witnesses was for the Board and not for the court.

The inquiry of the Board concerned ' the situation in which the workers of respondent had long been associated m an organization in which half of the members of its representative body had been chosen by the respondent. The active and directing heads of the organization had supervisory authority over some of the workmen. The respondent had posted in the plant its declaration to the workmen in writing that as the Supreme Court had construed the National Labor Relations Act, it was “not possible to continue the organization”, and such was manifestly the fact. In that situation the requirements of the Act were that there be complete restoration to the workers who had been associated in the organization, of full freedom to exercise their right of self organization. National Labor Relations Board v. Newport News Shipbuilding Co., 308 U.S. 241, loc. cit. 250, 60 S.Ct. 203, 84 L.Ed. 219. The facts here found by the Board upon sufficient evidence fairly support the inference that such full freedom was not restored and that advantage was taken by the employer of the existing organization and of the authority of certain members of its Assembly which adhered to them by reason of their offices in that organization. The acts of assistance and interference on the part of respondent in the organization of the new labor organization could not be judged in isolation by themselves alone. If that were possible, the holding would have to be that the acts did not amount to the domination or interference prohibited by the Act. But only a few days intervened between the respondent’s posting its declaration of the impossibility of continuing the old organization and the completion of the new organization and the recognition thereof by the employer. The facts found by the Board upon substantial evidence sufficiently sustain its finding that there was a material degree of interference and domination on the part of the respondent in the formation and administration of the new labor organization.

The respondent insists that even if some order of disestablishment was justified, the present order goes too far, and by failing to specify the conduct that may be deemed a contempt, the order subjects respondent to wrongful restraint in the conduct of its business.

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Bluebook (online)
116 F.2d 143, 7 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 562, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 2577, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-swift-co-ca8-1940.