Wilson & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board

123 F.2d 411, 9 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 599, 1941 U.S. App. LEXIS 2731
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 10, 1941
Docket496, 497
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 123 F.2d 411 (Wilson & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board) 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
Wilson & Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 123 F.2d 411, 9 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 599, 1941 U.S. App. LEXIS 2731 (8th Cir. 1941).

Opinion

GARDNER, Circuit Judge.

This matter is before us upon two petitions filed by Wilson & Co., Inc., to review and set aside two orders of the National Labor Relations Board. In its answer to the petition, the Board requests enforcement of the orders. In each of these cases the Board has found the petitioner guilty of certain unfair labor practices, (1) in dominating and interfering with and in supporting a local labor organization known in the record as the Club and (2) in discriminating against certain employees because of their union affiliations or activities. The orders of the Board require petitioner (1) to withdraw recognition from and to disestablish the Club as a collective bargaining representative of the employees; (2) to offer reinstatement and back pay and restore seniority and other rights to certain employees, and (3) to post appropriate notices.

Petitioner seeks review of these orders and asks that they be set aside as not sustained by substantial evidence. Respondent, on the other hand, requests enforcement of the orders as entered by the Board. We shall first consider the findings of the Board to the effect that petitioner dominated and interfered with the formation and administration of the Club and had contributed support to it in violation of Section 8(1) and (2) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(1,2).

Petitioner operates a produce plant at Faribault, Minnesota, a city of about 14,000 population. The plant was acquired in 1934 but shortly thereafter was closed by a strike called by the Independent Union of All Workers and was not reopened until the spring of 1935. The plant handles poultry and eggs produced in the area tributary to Faribault and processes butter which it purchases in bulk from creameries in Minnesota. It employs irregularly, because of the nature of the business, from 26 to 197 workmen during the year. Following labor agitations involving threats and violence initiated in 1934 by the Independent Union of All Workers, the plant was dosed. Some 15,000 head of poultry in the plant when the strike was called had to be fed and watered by the county attorney, and all representatives of the petitioner were excluded from its property. The plant remained closed until the spring of 1935, when it reopened. In the fall of 1937, the C. I. O. renewed labor organization activities and some of petitioner’s employees organized Local Union 216. Outside organizers called upon the management, claiming to represent petitioner’s employees, and petitioner began bargaining and meeting representative employees. There followed a period of attempted organization by the employees, with threats to again close the plant with strikes and threats of physical violence toward those employees who did not join the C. I. O. About December 9, 1937, some of the employees commenced the organization of an unaffiliated union of petitioner’s employees in opposition to Local 216, which was permitted to intervene at the hearing before the examiner. It was this Club which the Board found to be company dominated. Referring to the efforts of Local Union 216 to organize the employees, the general foreman in December, 1937, reported to the manager that there was trouble brewing. The plant foreman reported to the manager that various workers were attempting to organize the C. I. O. and gave him the names of the employees who were so engaged.

In the final analysis, the question of domination and interference in the formation of the Employees’ Club is dependent upon the status of certain employees, notably Russell Woods, Andy O’Brien, C. J. St. Martin, Bessie Rauchert and Fred Allison. Woods and O’Brien consulted local attorney Thomas Quinn and secured from him certain documents which had been prepared for an unaffiliated organization contemplated during the 1934 strike to oppose the Independent Union of All Workers. These papers were taken to the office of another attorney, who recast them so as to make them applicable to the Club. Among these documents was a petition for the establishment of the Club. This petition was circulated among the employees on company time and on company premises. St. Martin solicited employees under *414 him to sign the petition. Rauchert arranged for the 25 employees under her to leave their work one by one and go to the dressing room during working hours, where she personally procured their signatures to the petition. These parties, Woods, O’Brien, St. Martin, Rauchert and Allison themselves signed the membership roll and served as officers, Allison acting as temporary chairman of the Club, and O’Brien later served as president.

It is contended by the petitioner that these employees were ordinary workmen without authority over their fellow employees and without power to employ or discharge employees, or otherwise to represent petitioner. Russell Woods did not become plant superintendent until the middle of 1938. Before that time he was employed in the chicken-picking room. When he became plant superintendent, he withdrew from the Club. Before becoming plant superintendent, the character of his duties and the extent of his authority are difficult of determination because it- is not always possible to determine whether the witness is speaking of his duties prior to his promotion or subsequent thereto. It is pointed out by the Board that rates of pay were higher for all these named persons and their employment was steady. One witness testified that: “They had the right to tell us what to do and how to do it.” In any event, they instructed new employees, they repeated instructions received from the superintendent to other employees, and they kept track of the time the various employees worked. They recommended and advised the superintendent concerning hiring and discharging employees. The plant superintendent testified that these men supervised the work in their particular departments. They were charged with responsibility for maintaining discipline and instructing new employees. To be sure, most of their work was manual. These facts were, we think, sufficient to sustain the finding of dominance of the Club through the activities of these persons. International Association of Machinists et al. v. N.L.R.B., 311 U.S. 72, 61 S.Ct. 83, 85 L.Ed. 50; H. J. Heinz Co. v. N.L.R.B., 311 U.S. 514, 61 S.Ct. 320, 85 L.Ed. 309; National Labor Relations Board v. Link-Belt Co., 311 U.S. 584, 61 S.Ct. 358, 85 L.Ed. 368; Eagle-Picher Mining & Smelting Co. v. N.L.R.B., 8 Cir., 119 F.2d 903.

The Board’s finding of domination and interference being supported by substantial evidence, it follows that the orders to withdraw recognition from and to disestablish the Club as a bargaining representative of the employees must be sustained.

As to that part of the orders based upon the findings that petitioner had discriminatorily refused to reinstate certain employees, we find it necessary to consider each of these employees separately or in groups. Certain basic facts with reference to the nature and characteristics of petitioner’s business must be considered in connection with each of these individuals.

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Bluebook (online)
123 F.2d 411, 9 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 599, 1941 U.S. App. LEXIS 2731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-co-v-national-labor-relations-board-ca8-1941.