Wah Chang Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board

305 F.2d 15, 50 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2595, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4706
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 25, 1962
Docket16652_1
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 305 F.2d 15 (Wah Chang Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board) 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
Wah Chang Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board, 305 F.2d 15, 50 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2595, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4706 (9th Cir. 1962).

Opinions

EAST, District Judge.

NATURE OF ACTION

This case came before the Court upon the petition of Wah Chang Corporation, a corporation of the State of New York, doing business in Albany, District of Oregon (Chang), to review and set aside the order of the respondent National Labor Relations Board (Board) affirming its trial examiner’s findings and conclm sions (Examiner), issued on October 14, 1959, which order held that Chang had engaged in unfair labor practices in violation of § 8(a) (1), (2) and (3) of the Labor Management Relations Act, as amended (Relations Act), Title 29 U.S. C.A. § 158.

Chang is engaged in interstate commerce, and the alleged unfair labor practices allegedly occurred at its plants in Albany. The Board, in its answer to Chang’s petition, has cross-petitioned for enforcement of its order (Tr. 49).

JURISDICTION

This Court has jurisdiction of the proceedings under §§ 10(e) and (f) of the Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(e, f).

STATEMENT OF CASE

Chang’s operation at Albany consists of four separate plant buildings where it produces reactive and rare metals which include zirconium, hafnium, co~ lumbium and tantalum. These metals are very valuable and extremely hard to produce. Their proper processing requires constant attention and alertness of the operators. (Tr. 112.)

Zirconium and Allied Metals Union is a so-called company union (Union), and was bargaining agent for the production and maintenance employees of Chang as the result of a Board-conducted election. Chang and Union entered into a working bargaining-agent agreement dated August 1, 1957, which had, by its terms, expired on July 31, 1958. However, the parties by mutual consent extended this agreement, and negotiations were being had between the parties for renewal when Metals Trade Council of Portland and Vicinity, AFL-CIO (Council) decided to attempt to secure enough signatures of the production and maintenance employees of Chang to enable Council to request a Board-conducted election. At no time did Council advise Chang that it was going to solicit Chang’s employees for signatures on Council’s authorization cards. For the purposes of this case, we will accept the Board’s findings of fact, stated in the Board’s brief to be, briefly, that the Board found that Chang unlawfully assisted Union by:

(1) “Maintaining and giving effect to a contract provision [Article XXII, infra] requiring permission from Union for employees to engage in Council’s solicitation on Chang’s premises;
(2) “That [Chang] discriminatoria discharged four employees
“(a) William L. Stutheit
“(b) Ronald E. Graham
“(c) Allen W. Wallace
“(d) Quinton D. Dombrowsky
for soliciting in behalf of [Council] ;
(3) “That [Chang] interfered with the organizational rights of its employees under the Act by interro[17]*17gating them regarding their membership and activities in behalf of [Council]; and
(4) “By threatening them with discharge for engaging in such activities.”

The important Article XXII, contained in the October 8, 1957 one-year contract, provided:

“There shall be no soliciting or petitioning in the plants without the consent of the company [Chang] and the Union [Metals Union aforesaid].”

The Board insists that the record as a whole reveals substantial evidence to sustain each of the four charges and findings and that its order is valid and enforceable. Chang avers the review involves two basic questions:

(1) Were the four employees discharged by Chang because they solicited signatures of Chang’s employees during working hours and while such employees were on duty, or were these employees discharged [merely] for [their] activities on behalf of Council?
(2) Did the acts and conduct of some of Chang’s foremen interfere with, restrain, and coerce its employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Relations Act, and thereby constitute an unfair labor practice within the meaning of Section 8(a) (1) of the Relations Act?

We deal with the Board’s charges, findings and conclusions in the order set out numerically above; there may, however, be some overlapping instances.

At this point we admonish ourselves that the authorities are legion to the effect that if there is any substantial evidence in the record as a whole to support the charges, findings and conclusions of the Examiner as may have been adopted by the Board, such findings and conclusions of the Examiner must stand, and are not subject to a judicial rehash. Yet, if Examiner’s determinations and findings are unsupported by any substandal evidence in the record as a whole, or if his inferences drawn from the evidence before him are unwarranted, his conclusions may be judicially reviewed, and, if found wanting, set aside. Flemming v. Huycke, 284 F.2d 546 (9 Cir. 1960). Except for one legal principle involving the full meaning and application of Article XXII aforesaid, this review must be resolved from a search and appraisal of the entire evidentiary record.

LEGAL INTERPRETATION OF ARTICLE XXII

Recalling that the language of Article XXII is “There shall be no soliciting or petitioning in the plants without the consent of [Chang] and [Union],” this provision, so far as “soliciting without the consent of [Chang] and [Union]” may well be violative of the Relations Act. The Examiner’s inference that the real purpose of Article XXII was “to obstruct or impede” rival union activities on behalf of Council is evident not only from the requirement prohibiting “soliciting without the consent of [Chang] or [Union]” but also because it banned solicitation “in the plants” without regard to during [emphasis supplied] working hours, and, hence, constituted an unreasonable impediment to organization, is only the Examiner’s personal inference and legal interpretation of the wording of Article XXII. We believe it to be an unwarranted inference and unsound legal interpretation and, further, that such an unwarranted inference and unsound legal interpretation cannot be a buttress or utilized by the Board in meeting its burden of proof that Chang discharged any one or more of the four dischargees because of “soliciting” activities.

“Employer rules prohibiting organizational solicitation are not in and of themselves violative of the Act, for they may duly serve production, order and discipline. See Republic Aviation Corp. v. [National] Labor [Relations] Board, 324 U.S. 793, [65 S.Ct. 982, 89 L.Ed. 1372] ; [National] Labor [Relations] Board [18]*18v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U.S. 105 [76 S.Ct. 679, 100 L.Ed. 975.]” N.L.R.B. v. United Steelworkers of America, 357 U.S. 357, 361-362, 78 S.Ct. 1268, 2 L.Ed.2d 1383.

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305 F.2d 15, 50 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2595, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wah-chang-corporation-v-national-labor-relations-board-ca9-1962.