Opinion ID: 1545493
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Effect of Events Subsequent to Hearing

Text: By a motion to adduce additional testimony the respondents press the significance of certain events which have taken place subsequent to the hearing and order in this litigation. The first of these events is the claimed establishment of the present Brotherhood unit as an independent bargaining agent. The respondents point out that, following its recognition by them, Brotherhood has asserted its independence by vigorous demands in favor of its members; that this took place on at least two occasions at the expiration of the period for which the closed shop contract had been made. On each of these occasions there has been a strike, together with the violence which not infrequently accompanies a strike. Intervention of federal mediation assistance was secured and a resumption of employment accomplished under terms said by respondents to be satisfactory to the employees. All this, they argue, shows that the employees are now represented by an independent bargaining agent. The second point ties up with the first. It is that at the present time the greater part of production of respondents' plant is concerned with the output of materials used directly or indirectly in the country's important defense effort. They point out that the abrogation of the present contract and the disestablishment of the union would leave the employees, at least temporarily, without a bargaining agent, with the attendant danger of labor disturbance and interruption of necessary production. As to the first argument we think the law on the subject clear. The legal situation has to be viewed as of the time of the Board's Decision; otherwise there is the danger, often spoken of, of making a merry-go-around of the Act. National Labor Relations Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, Inc., supra; Oughton v. National Labor Relations Board, 3 Cir., 1940, 118 F.2d 486, 496, et seq. The Board has found, and we have sustained the finding, that the establishment of the Brotherhood in respondents' plant was not the result of that free choice of a bargaining agent by employees which is guaranteed by the statute. The choice does not become a free choice by the lapse of time, when membership of both then and new employees is assured in the established bargaining agent by a closed shop contract. It is quite obvious, so far as the legal situation is concerned, that the effect of the original non-compliance with the law still continues. The second consideration, namely, the serious nature of the production of everything that pertains to war industry is of obvious importance. But the argument of lawyers in a courtroom that the disestablishment of a present bargaining unit and the abrogation of a present contract will disturb that production or will not disturb it is necessarily pure speculation. The Board is charged with the responsibility of representing the public interest, not that of private litigants. This the courts have said over and over again. Neither we nor counsel may assume that the Board is not conscious of all the factors to be taken into consideration in the present emergency nor have we any reason to assume lack of competence on their part to arrange such adjustment as is necessary to preserve the public interest. The problem is peculiarly one for expert administration and that the statute has lodged in the Board, not the courts. National Labor Relations Board v. Link-Belt Co., supra; International Ass'n of Machinists, etc., v. National Labor Relations Board, supra. The Board's petition for an enforcing decree is granted and a decree may be submitted in accordance with this opinion. The petition for leave to adduce additional evidence is denied.