Textile Workers Union of America v. National Labor Relations Board

388 F.2d 896, 67 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2055, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 4003
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided December 27, 1967·No. Nos. 86, 87, Dockets 31164, 31245·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This case is before us on two petitions to review and a cross-petition to enforce an order of the National Labor Relations Board issued on March 6, 1967, 163 NLRB No. 24, against J. P. Stevens & Co., Inc. (“the Company”). For the second time in less than a year, the Board found that the Company had engaged in numerous violations of sections 8(a) (1), (3) and (4) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a) (1), (3) and (4) (“the Act”). In J. P. Stevens & Co. v. N.L.R.B., 380 F.2d 292 (2 Cir. 1967), cert, denied, 389 U.S. 1005, 88 S.Ct. 564, 19 L.Ed.2d 600 (December 11, 1967), we enforced with modifications an order of the Board (substantially similar to the one now before us) issued against the Company on March 22, 1966, 157 NLRB 869. The facts of that case are the background of this one.

In the spring of 1963, the Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (“the Union”) undertook a concerted organizing campaign in approximately half of the Company’s forty-three textile plants in North and South Carolina. The Company notified its employees of its intention to oppose the Union, and in response to letters from those of its employees who joined the Union, advising it that any interference with the rights of Union adherents would be referred to the Board, it warned that “You will be expected and required to perform your job as fully as anybody else — if you wish to remain in the Company’s employment.” The Company subsequently posted on various plant bulletin boards the names of Union members who had written, together with copies of the Company’s reply. Many of these workers were eventually discharged; others withdrew from the Union, and as they did so their names were crossed off the lists.

We summarized as follows the change in the Company’s attitude toward its workers which came about with the commencement of the organizing campaign:

Prior to the organizing campaign, the plants had been operated in a permissive manner. Once an employee was hired, his tenure was fairly secure; discharges were uncommon. The Company was tolerant, even lenient, in such matters as absences, work breaks, transfers, and rehirings. Formal written reports of employee reprimands, known as Personnel Action Reports or write-ups, were infrequent and occurred only where misconduct was serious or repeated. With the advent of the Union, however, this attitude changed swiftly. Issuance of write-ups, often quickly followed by discharge, became common for Union adherents. Incidents or activities that had previously been overlooked now occasioned speedy and severe disciplinary action.

380 F.2d at 296. The Board found, in that case, that in the course of its anti-union campaign the Company had dis-criminatorily discharged seventy-one employees because of their union activity. We found substantial evidence to support the Board’s findings.

During the course of the hearing in that case, the Company continued to discharge employees, and further unfair labor practice charges were filed with the Board. Some of these led to amendment of the complaint, and thus have already been adjudicated. Other charges were still under investigation when the hearing closed, and those, together with additional charges alleging further discharges and other acts of interference, restraint and coercion in the period from the close of the hearing in September, [899]*8991964 through May, 1965 are the subject matter of the present case.1

The Board found, in the decision and order now before us, that the Company repeatedly violated section 8(a) (1) of the Act by threatening reprisals, promising benefits, engaging in related acts of interference, coercively interrogating employees, creating the impression of out-of-plant surveillance of employees, requiring an employee to go home and take off an “AFL-CIO” T-shirt, attempting to induce an employee to resign, and diseriminatorily applying a no-solicitation rule. The Board also concluded that the Company, in violation of sections 8(a) (3) and (4) of the Act, discharged thirteen employees because of their union activities, four additional employees because of their union activities and because they had testified adversely to the Company in the first hearing, and one employee, not a union member, because she too had testified against the Company. The Company was also found to have violated section 8(a) (3) of the Act by discriminating against two employees in the assignment of overtime work. Finally, the Board concluded that the General Counsel had failed to prove that the discharges of six employees were unlawful.2

We have reviewed the Board’s findings and the record with respect to each of the discharges covered in the Board’s decision and order, and have found substantial evidence to support the findings. As in the earlier case, the evidence of anti-union action is overwhelming in some instances, and nearer the borderline in others. The Company points to alleged evidence of unsatisfactory work by each of the employees found to have been dis-criminatorily discharged. Even in those instances where we must acknowledge the existence of two fairly conflicting views of the evidence, we are of course not at liberty to displace the Board’s choice between those views. Universal Camera Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951).3 Two discharges with respect to which the Trial Examiner and the Board disagreed as to the Company’s motivation are representative of the “close cases.” As to one, the Board reversed a finding that the Company had not violated the Act; as to the other, the Board reversed a finding of violation.

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Textile Workers Union of America v. National Labor Relations Board, 388 F.2d 896, 67 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2055, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 4003 (2d Cir. 1967).

388 F.2d 896 (Textile Workers Union of America v. National Labor Relations Board) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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