Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/100768/labor-board-vs-burnup-sims-inc
Timestamp: 2016-10-28 17:42:38
Document Index: 576666275

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 7', '§ 2']

Labor Board Vs Burnup and Sims Inc - Citation 100768 - Court Judgment | LegalCrystal
Save as PDF Add a Tag Add a Note Semantics Visualize Labor Board Vs. Burnup and Sims, Inc. - Court Judgment	LegalCrystal Citationlegalcrystal.com/100768CourtUS Supreme CourtDecided OnNov-09-1964Case Number379 U.S. 21AppellantLabor BoardRespondentBurnup and Sims, Inc.Excerpt:
labor board v. burnup & sims, inc. - 379 u.s. 21 (1964)
respondent employer discharged two employees upon being erroneously advised that they, while soliciting another employee for union membership, had threatened to dynamite company property if the union did not receive collective bargaining authorization. the court of appeals, finding that the employer had acted in good faith, reversed the national labor relations board's holding that the.....Judgment:
Regardless of motive, the employer violated § 8(a)(1) of the Act, since the discharged employees, who were not guilty of misconduct, were engaged in activity which was protected under § 7, and the wrongful discharge would tend to discourage § 7 activity. Pp.
379 U. S. 22
An unfair labor practice proceeding was brought. The Board held that the discharges violated §§ 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the Act, [
] 61 Stat. 136, 140-141, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1) and (a)(3). It found that Pate's charges against Davis and Harmon were untrue, and that they had actually made no threats against the company's property; and it concluded that respondent's honest belief in the truth of the statement was not a defense. 137 N.L.R.B. 766, 772-773.
The Court of Appeals refused reinstatement of Davis and Harmon, holding that, since the employer acted in good faith, the discharges were not unlawful. 322 F.2d 57. We granted the petition for certiorari because of a conflict among the Circuits.
with the opinion below
Labor Board v. Industrial Cotton Mills,
208 F.2d 87;
Labor Board v. Cambria Clay Products Co.,
215 F.2d 48;
Cusano v. Labor Board,
190 F.2d 898.
We find it unnecessary to reach the questions raised under § 8(a)(3), for we are of the view that, in the context of this record, § 8(a)(1) was plainly violated whatever the employer's motive. [
] Section 7 grants employees,
"the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations." Defeat of those rights by employer action does not necessarily depend on the existence of an anti-union bias. Over and again, the Board had ruled that § 8(a)(1) is violated if an employee is discharged for misconduct arising out of a protected activity, despite the employer's good faith, when it is shown that the misconduct never occurred.
See, e.g., Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp.,
54 N.L.R.B. 912, 932-934;
91 N.L.R.B. 783, 790-791;
Rubin Bros. Footwear, Inc.,
99 N.L.R.B. 610, 611. [
] In sum, § 8(a)(1) is violated if it is shown that the discharged employee was at the time engaged in a protected activity, that the employer knew it was such, that the basis of the discharge was an alleged act of misconduct in the course of that activity, and that the employee was not, in fact, guilty of that misconduct.
discharges to weaken or destroy the § 8(a)(1) right that is controlling. We are not in the realm of managerial prerogatives. Rather, we are concerned with the manner of soliciting union membership over which the Board has been entrusted with powers of surveillance.
See Garment Workers v. Labor Board,
366 U. S. 738
-739;
-229. Had the alleged dynamiting threats been wholly disassociated from § 7 activities, quite different considerations might apply.
case made a qualification as to burden of proof. Prior thereto, the burden was on the employer to prove that the discharged employee was in fact guilty of the misconduct.
Between these two one-way streets lies a middle two-way course: a rule which would require reinstatement of the mistakenly discharged employee and back pay only as of the time that the employer learned, or should have learned, of his mistake, subject, however, to a valid business reason for refusing reinstatement. [
] Such a rule gives offense neither to any policy of the statute nor to the dictates of fairness to the employer, and, in my opinion, represents a reasonable accommodation between the two inflexible points of view evinced by the opinions below and here.
Since I do not believe that this case presents the rare situation in which the Board can ignore motive, [
] I would vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the Board for further appropriate proceedings in light of what I believe to be the proper rule.
See Teamsters Local v. Labor Board,
(1961) (concurring opinion). Respondent here had a significant business justification -- to avoid dynamiting of a silo -- for discharging the employees, unlike the situations presented in
Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. v. Labor Board,
162 F.2d 435;
190 F.2d 898, and
208 F.2d 87.
See Teamsters Local, supra,
365 U. S. 680
the employer downgraded the status of plant inspectors after they had voted to join a union, and it was apparent that the employer acted only because of the inspectors' membership in the union. There was no business justification for the employer's action except for his feeling that union members should not exercise supervisory powers, and the Board was therefore justified in treating this as an unfair labor practice without a specific finding of discriminatory motive.
involved a mistaken belief by the employer that an employee had made a misstatement about company profits, which might well have been protected campaign "oratory" even if the employee had made the misstatement. Since the employer could simply have denied the truth of the profit figures, there was no business justification for discharging the employee.
Industrial Cotton Mills
presents the closest analogy to the case before us. There, an employee was refused reinstatement following a strike for alleged strike misconduct -- throwing tacks on the street during a strike -- which he did not commit. The Court of Appeals recognized the special congressional concern for the right to strike embodied in §§ 2(3) and 13 of the Act, and held that the employer's lack of antiunion motive was irrelevant. There was also little business justification for punishing the employee after the strike had ended, unlike the fear in this case of future sabotage by the employees.