Case Name: NATIONAL VENDORS, a Division of UMC Industries, Inc., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1980-08-26
Citations: 630 F.2d 1265
Docket Number: No. 79-1888
Parties: NATIONAL VENDORS, a Division of UMC Industries, Inc., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
Judges: Before HEANEY and ARNOLD, Circuit Judges, and SACHS, District Judge.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 630
Pages: 1265–1270

Head Matter:
NATIONAL VENDORS, a Division of UMC Industries, Inc., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
No. 79-1888.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
Submitted April 17, 1980.
Decided Aug. 26, 1980.
Donald J. Meyer, St. Louis, Mo., for petitioner.
Joseph A. Schwachter, Atty., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., argued, Paul J. Spielberg, Deputy Asst. Gen. Counsel; William A. Lubbers, Gen. Counsel; John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel; Robert E. Allen, Acting Associate Gen. Counsel; and Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, Washington, D. C., on brief, for respondent.
Before HEANEY and ARNOLD, Circuit Judges, and SACHS, District Judge.
The Honorable HOWARD F. SACHS, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
HEANEY, Circuit Judge.
This case is before the Court upon the petition of National Vendors to review a decision and order of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB cross-appeals for enforcement. We grant National Vendors' petition to set aside the Board's order and deny its enforcement.
I
BACKGROUND
National Vendors is engaged in the manufacture and distribution of vending machines and related products at five locations in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. This petition involves only Plant No. 3. The production and maintenance workers of that plant are represented by four different unions: the machinists' union, representing approximately 275 employees; the painters' union, representing fifteen employees; the polishers' union, also representing fifteen employees; and the electricians' union, which represents two employees. These four unions are jointly certified to represent the plant's employees and negotiate a joint contract.
Approximately 210 to 215 bargaining unit employees, along with sixty-five office employees and supervisory personnel, work during the first of two shifts. Eighty to ninety bargaining unit employees and five or six other employees work the second shift.
The events giving rise to the Board's finding of an unfair labor practice occurred in the context of contract negotiations between National Vendors and the four unions in the plant. In October of 1978, employees at the plant made written suggestions to the various unions for a new collective bargaining agreement. The existing contract was to expire on March 1, 1979.
The first contract negotiation session was held on November 28, 1978, and representatives of the Company and all four unions were present. Also present was a contract negotiating committee whose members were employees elected by each union at the plant. At this session, Christopher Nelke, a member of the negotiating committee elected by the machinists' union and chief steward on the second shift, requested to use the union's bulletin board for posting information on the progress of negotiations. This request was denied by National Vendors' Director of Personnel, Edwin J. Barutio.
On the same day, Nelke held a meeting in the Company cafeteria during a ten-minute break in the second shift. The cafeteria is approximately fifty by ninety or one hundred feet in size and contains vending machines and twenty tables, seating a total of eighty people. Nelke stood behind a counter in front of the cafeteria and spoke to a group of approximately eighty people, including non-unit personnel. He stated that he had been denied the use of the bulletin board by the Company, but that he would inform them of the negotiations by holding meetings in the cafeteria or handing out literature.
A second meeting was held by Nelke on December 13,1978, in the cafeteria during a ten-minute break period. At this meeting, Nelke and another member of the negotiating committee distributed a leaflet, signed by certain members of the union negotiating committee, entitled "What's Goin' On." At this meeting, Nelke again stood behind the counter in the cafeteria and explained the handout to those present. The handout and contract negotiations were then discussed. Again, non-unit personnel were present.
The following day, Nelke was told by Barutio that he was not to hold any more meetings in the Company cafeteria. At the
next contract negotiating session on December 21, 1978, Barutio repeated this instruction. James Bagwell, spokesperson for all four unions, agreed to the Company's position. In early 1979, a union meeting was called and nine portions of the contract were discussed and voted on. Eventually, a new contract was negotiated and approved by the union membership.
On January 2, 1979, Nelke filed a charge with the NLRB, contending that National Vendors violated § 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), by refusing to permit employees to conduct meetings on nonwork time in the employee cafeteria. The Administrative Law Judge found National Vendors violated § 8(a)(1) and recommended that it be ordered to cease and desist from
[prohibiting employees from holding meetings on nonworking time in the employee cafeteria in its Plant No. 3 for the purpose of informing employees concerning the course and progress of collective bargaining between Respondent and the Unions representing the production and maintenance employees at such plant .
The Administrative Law Judge also recommended that the Company be required to post a notice at Plant No. 3 stating that it will no longer prohibit employees from holding meetings in its cafeteria. The Board, modifying only slightly the wording of the notice, adopted the recommended order of the Administrative Law Judge.
II
ANALYSIS
Section 7 of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 157, gives employees the right to discuss union matters and distribute union literature on company premises during nonworking time. Eastex, Inc. v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 556, 98 S.Ct. 2505, 57 L.Ed.2d 428 (1978); Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793, 803-804 & n.10, 65 S.Ct. 982, 987-988, & n.10, 89 L.Ed. 1372 (1945); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. NLRB, 472 F.2d 539 (8th Cir. 1973). Restrictions on the employees' exercise of section 7 rights during authorized nonwork time or in nonwork areas are presumptively invalid. American Cast Iron Pipe Co. v. NLRB, 600 F.2d 132, 135 (8th Cir. 1979); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. NLRB, supra, 472 F.2d at 544. In this case, however, there is no charge or evidence that National Vendors prohibited employee discussions at lunchroom tables or other non-work areas during nonwork time nor is there evidence here that the distribution of literature in the cafeteria during nonwork time was prohibited. Thus, we find no support in the record for the Administrative Law Judge's conclusion that
Barutio, with Bagwell's concurrence, imposefd] a gag on employee discussion of union affairs at any time in any part of [National Vendors'] premises.
Rather, it is clear that the Company's prohibition was narrowly directed at the practice of holding structured large group meetings during breaks in a company cafeteria that is open to all employees, including supervisory and non-unit personnel. We think it clear that such meetings are disruptive, particularly when the cafeteria is simultaneously used by other employees including supervisory employees. As the Board acknowledged in A.M.C. Air Conditioning Co., 232 N.L.R.B. 283, 283 (1977), there may be "certain limited circumstances [in which] an employer can lawfully prohibit the use of a lunchroom during mealtimes for various loud or otherwise disrupting activities including certain normally protected concerted activities." (Footnote omitted.) See also Farah Manufacturing Co., 202 N.L. R.B. 666 (1973). We think this is one of those circumstances.
We also find no support in the record for the Board's conclusion that Barutio and Bagwell were attempting to keep the contract negotiations out of the hands of the elected negotiation committee. The committee members were free to discuss the progress of negotiations with fellow employees on the Company premises during breaks and before and after work. Further, they were free to, and, in fact, did distribute materials to employees about the negotiations. They were also free to discuss the negotiations at regular union meetings and meetings held to vote on the contract.
The Board also found that a request by Nelke to hold meetings at the machinists' hall was denied by Bagwell so as to limit employee participation and input to the negotiations. We not only doubt the validity of this finding but we question its relevance to this case since no unfair labor practice charge against the union has been filed.
National Vendors also contends that the union, through Bagwell, waived any rights the employees may have had to hold meetings in the cafeteria. We agree with the Board that Bagwell could not waive the rights of the employees to discuss contract negotiations on the employers' premises during non work time. NLRB v. Magnavox Co., 415 U.S. 322, 94 S.Ct. 1099, 39 L.Ed.2d 358 (1974). However, even if we accept that the union attempted to waive certain rights of employees, the rule imposed by National Vendors does not restrict the right to discuss contract negotiations on the employer's premises during nonwork time. The rule goes solely to semi-formal meetings held in the cafeteria during short breaks by a member of the contract negotiating committee.
For these reasons, we find that National Vendors did not violate § 8(a)(1) of the Act and deny enforcement of the Board's order.
. There is no charge in the complaint regarding access to the bulletin board.
. On the second shift, five or six nonbargaining unit employees have access to the cafeteria. During the lunch period of the first shift, about sixty-five office employees have access to the cafeteria at the time the bargaining unit employees are using the cafeteria for lunch. There is no evidence in the record of how many employees actually use the cafeteria during break time since they may leave the plant during their breaks.
. Bagwell testified at the hearing:
I agreed with the [Company's] position not to hold meetings in the plant and was questioned why and explained why, because [the members of the negotiating committee] were all new and we hadn't agreed to anything at all. We had just been discussing proposals and when there was something that was necessary to go back to the membership and when we decided on something we would call a meeting and present the entire membership with what we had agreed on.
. We note that a National Vendors' foreman was in the lunchroom during one of Nelke's meetings. Employer surveillance of union activity can unlawfully inhibit employee exercise of section 7 rights. See NLRB v. Aero Corp., 581 F.2d 511 (5th Cir. 1978). While there is no allegation in this case of such activity, additional meetings in the cafeteria with supervisory personnel present could raise questions of unlawful interference with employee rights.