Opinion ID: 360524
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: misrepresentation concerning second election

Text: 39 Shortly before the election, employee Martinez received a hand-written letter, addressed to his home, from Teamster organizer Aloise. The letter stated, in part, the reason the National Labor Relations Board granted a new election was because of the lies and false promises Oshman's told you and the other employees. This statement was a misrepresentation, as Aloise, a union organizer involved in the campaign from its inception, had reason to know. The Regional Director had ordered a new election because Oshman's and the Teamsters agreed to it. The Board never determined that Oshman's committed improprieties during the first campaign. Martinez delivered the letter to Oshman's assistant warehouse manager at 8:30 a. m. on Monday, May 10. The election was held on Thursday, May 13. Martinez did not show the letter to, or discuss its contents with, any other employee. 40 Had Martinez alone received the letter, there would be no problem with this issue. The Teamsters won the May 13 election by a vote of 14 to 8; Martinez's single vote, even assuming, as appears most unlikely, that he had voted for the union, could not have altered the result. The difficulty stems from the fact that Aloise told a Board investigator that he may have sent two similar letters to other Oshman's employees. Aloise did not retain copies of the letters, and could not remember whether they contained the same statement about the reasons why the Board set aside the first election. 41 The Regional Director resolved the doubts concerning the other letters' existence and content, if any, in favor of the Teamsters. She took the position that Oshman's had the burden of coming forward with proof of the sending and content of the other letters and since it had not, she assumed that they did not exist. Proceeding on the premise that Martinez was the sole recipient of the letter, she noted that his vote could not have affected the election result. We need not consider whether, as Oshman's asserts, this imposed too heavy a burden upon the Employer. 42 The Regional Director also concluded that the employer had sufficient opportunity to reply before the election, either by letter to all employees, or by calling a meeting, but did not do so. The Board's summary affirmance covers this reason as well as the other, and we think that it is sufficient. 43 We do not agree with Oshman's argument that the misrepresentation so seriously threatened the appearance of neutrality on the part of the Board as to require us to hold that the election should be set aside. The Regional Director, after an investigation, had found that the Union's charges of promises and misrepresentations were supported by substantial material issues of fact sufficient to require a hearing. Thereafter, the parties stipulated that (t) he objections (of the Union) raise substantial and material issues with respect to the election, and stipulated to a new election. 44 We do not excuse Aloise's misrepresentation. But we do agree with the Board that it was not so egregious as to require that the election be set aside, when Oshman's had a sufficient opportunity to respond to it and did not do so. Cf. J. Ray McDermott & Co., 1974, 215 NLRB 570 (partisan message added to letter-like reproduction of Board telegram); Mallory Capacitor Co., 1966, 161 NLRB 1510 (alteration of Board complaint); NLRB v. John S. Barnes Corp., 7 Cir., 1973, 478 F.2d 1105 (partisan comment added to Board order); Lake Odessa Machine Products, Inc. v. NLRB, 6 Cir., 1975, 512 F.2d 762 (partisan cartoon added to lengthy quotation from Board notice). Dubie-Clark Co., 1974, 209 NLRB 217, on which Oshman's most heavily relies, involved a leaflet sent to all employees, misrepresenting a Board notice as finding five very serious violations by the employer of the employees' rights. This is closer to the above cases than it is to the case before us. The same is true of the conduct involved in Natter Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, supra. There, the offending material was circulated on the day of the election, and it asserted that the Board had found the union guilty of five unfair labor practices. In fact, there had been a settlement agreement, which expressly disclaimed the violations. Formco, Inc., 1977, 233 NLRB No. 5, is similar to Natter in that the offending material was sent to all employees, not just one. It differs in that the material was sent out seven weeks before the election. 45 We think that it is for the Board, not for us, to decide whether a particular misrepresentation of its decisions, orders, documents or other processes is sufficiently serious to require that an election be set aside. We conclude that it was within the Board's wide discretion to decide that what happened here did not require that the election be set aside, even if three employees, rather than one, had received the letter. 46 The order of the Board will be enforced. The petition to set it aside is denied.