Opinion ID: 184743
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Union's Participation in the Lawsuit

Text: As the Union observes, there is no definitive evidencelinking it to the filing of the suit against the Company. True,both the employee plaintiffs in that suit and the Union hereare represented by Mr. Rosenfeld; and yes, the Union usedthe suit to argue its case for election in the flyer it distributedto Freund's employees. Although both facts suggest that the __________  We note that Mr. Rosenfeld represented the union and theemployee plaintiffs in the Nestle case as well. There, too, the suitwas announced to the employees the day before the election. Union sponsored the suit, they do not establish either thatthe Union in fact did finance the litigation, or, if it did, everpublicized that assistance to the employees. Therefore, theUnion contends, Freund has failed to prove that, even underthe Company's view of the law, the Union provided anobjectionable benefit to the employees before the election. This argument need not detain us long. If the Union wasnot responsible for the suit, it certainly encouraged voters tobelieve it was: The Union announced the suit in a campaignflyer consisting exclusively of pro-Union and anti-Freundcommentary and ending with the slogan Union Yes! Employees reading this flyer could not have failed to get themessage that they had the Union to thank for their legalrepresentation. That the flyer does not itself prove Unionsponsorship of the suit is immaterial; it is the appearance ofsupport, not the support itself, that may have interfered withthe voters' decisionmaking. Indeed, in the post-election proceeding upon Freund's objections, the Regional Director referred to the Union itself ashaving filed the lawsuit. The record does not indicate thatthe Union ever disputed that characterization before theRegional Director or filed a conditional cross-exception to itbefore the Board. Therefore, we treat the Union's responsibility for the suit as having been conclusively established.