Opinion ID: 272543
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of Protected Statements

Text: 17 The Company insists that statements protected by Section 8(c) 8 of the Act were used by the Trial Examiner and the Board for purposes inconsistent with the protection granted by that section. It claims statements were used to judge the credibility of Company witnesses, to establish the bad faith refusal to bargain, and in short as some evidence of the unfair labor practices themselves. We do not so read either the decision of the Examiner or that of the Board. There is a vast difference between the use of protected statements as evidence of an unfair labor practice, and the use of such statements to draw the background of the controversy and place other nonverbal acts in proper perspective. The latter is all the Board did here. The evidence recited by both the Examiner and the Board relates to specific acts of various agents of the Company. The references to protected statements or speeches merely placed the other acts in context. This limited use is sanctioned by Hendrix Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, 321 F.2d 100 (5th Cir. 1963), cited by the Examiner. 18 In particular, the Company states that the Examiner used protected material to place 'all management representatives in the 'liar' column,' and for the 'mass discrediting of all company witnesses.' We find no support in the record for this exaggerated characterization of the Examiner's method of decision. We have been shown nothing from which it could be inferred that the Examiner strayed from his role as an objective and impartial fact-finder. Moreover, the Board in its decision did not refer to the protected material, and its decision is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. See Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 492-497, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951).