Opinion ID: 1562805
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Nullification of the Contracts with the Respondent.

Text: The Board further found that the back-to-work movement and the subsequent contracts between the employees individually and the respondent were the results of the unfair labor practices of the respondent in interfering with its employees. Accordingly, in paragraphs 1 (b) and 2 (d) it ordered the respondent to cease giving effect to the contracts signed with the individual employees or the so-called collective agreement executed by attaching to the company contract the employees' signatures on the back-to-work petitions, and ordered the posting of notices to the effect that these contracts were null and void. We believe these portions of the order to be proper. After the strike was called, the refusal of the respondent to bargain with the Union as required by law was coupled with an effort to discredit the authority of the Union as representative of the employees and to force the employees to repudiate the Union and make separate arrangements with the company. Three weeks after the strike began the respondent's unfair labor practices apparently began to bear fruit. On June 10, two employees, sought the aid of Mr. Johnson, an attorney, in getting them back to work. They said they believed a majority of the employees wished to sign the company contract. After unsuccessful attempts to gain the support of the Union by a vote to accept the respondent's contract, a manoeuvre frequently suggested by the respondent, back-to-work petitions were circulated declaring a desire to return to work and authorizing the annexation of the signatures of the signers to the company contract. There was evidence that the acceptance of the company contract was considered a necessary condition of returning to work, and it was so suggested in the petition and the preceding literature. Mr. Clark having been informed of these negotiations, refused to deal with the employees until a majority had signed the petitions. By July 12, a majority had signed. Mr. Walsh rejected a final opportunity to sign the company contract on behalf of the Union, and the signatures were thereupon annexed to the contract. The plant reopened on July 14. Thereafter, 107 additional signatures were affixed, though the Board found that this was the result of a desire on the part of the signers not to have themselves set apart from the majority in the eyes of the respondent rather than a wish to accept the contract. The contract to which these signatures were attached was in no sense the product of collective bargaining. Neither had there been any negotiations between the individuals and the company as to the terms of the contract. Furthermore, this contract contained the offensive provision, already alluded to, requiring the employees to agree that neither individually nor as members of any union would they at any time in the future request a closed shop agreement or the check-off. The making of such a stipulation, as a condition of employment, was itself an unfair labor practice in that it imposed a restraint upon the employees in the exercise of their right to bargain collectively in the future. While the back-to-work movement was not found to have been engineered by the respondent, there was ample evidence to support the finding that the acceptance of the contract was brought about by the respondent's interference with its employees and its refusal to bargain with the Union. Under such circumstances like contracts have been voided on the ground that an employer may not reap the fruits of his illegality by thus being allowed to eliminate a designated union as the bargaining agency of its employees. National Labor Relations Board v. Bradford Dyeing Ass'n, supra; National Licorice Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra; American Mfg. Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 1940, 309 U.S. 629, 60 S.Ct. 612, 84 L.Ed. 988, affirming 2 Cir., 1939, 106 F.2d 61; National Labor Relations Board v. Elkland Leather Co., supra; cf. Texas & N. O. Ry. v. Railway Clerks, supra. Paragraphs 1 (b) and 2 (d) of the Order will be enforced. Paragraph 2 (d), however, must be amended to read as follows: Personally inform in writing each of its employees who has entered into one or more of the contracts described in paragraph 1 (b) of this Order, that such contracts were entered into in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, and that the respondent will no longer offer, solicit, enter into, continue, enforce or attempt to enforce such contracts with its employees; but this is without prejudice to the assertion by the employees of any legal rights they may have acquired under such contracts. National Licorice Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra, 309 U.S. at pages 366, 367, 60 S.Ct. at page 578, 84 L.Ed. 799.