Opinion ID: 260363
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: issues

Text: 14 Our issues really arise from the lack of substance to sustain the conclusions predicating the Board's order. Critical items of purported fact are not supported, as we shall develop. To the contrary, the entire record, in support of the Examiner, shows that the employer's offers, both on Saturday, July 23, 6 and Monday, July 25, 1960, were unequivocal and without condition of any kind. Even were we to say that technically, the Friday discharge was discriminatory and so violated section 8(a)(3), that factor here presents no real issue. The employer moved promptly to dissipate the effect of the mistaken action of its employee Way. The Board's Decision expressly set forth that since the Saturday offer was 'made in good faith, we shall not hold (the employer) liable for back pay from Saturday, July 23   .'The law required the employer to do no more than it did on Saturday morning. Hunt by telephone Saturday morning told Murphy, a former shop steward, that he and the other three men were to go back to work provided they did so under the 'old contract' and that Compton and Boone were reinstated with back pay. Murphy so advised the employer, and he and the other plumbers accordingly went back to work, abandoned the letter of intent, and the employer by 11 A.M. notified both Compton and Boone to report for the afternoon shift, with back pay for their lost time. The record does not support a conclusion that the Friday discrimination thereafter continued. 15 Confronted with such a record, the Board in its Decision said that a section 8(a)(3) violation occurred because the employer held open its offer of reinstatement for 'an unreasonably 7 short time.' The Board's language may be interpreted to mean, as Board counsel orally argued, that the bona fide offer of reinstatement to Compton and Boone must as a matter of right be held open until their union might decide whehter or not the unconditional offer was to be accepted. We find no language in the Act for that proposition and no authority which has so reasoned, whether with respect to the Saturday offer, the Monday offer, or the employer's final refusal to reinstate after acceptance had come too late. From the beginning, Monday noon had been fixed as the deadline for decision. The employer certainly was entitled to know where it stood, especially when the whole situation had evolved in the first place from the desire of the plumbers to secure a raise 16 The record thus sustains the Examiner. It is barren of evidence that the employer was guilty of unlawful discrimination where it promptly offered to reinstate Compton and boone and to reimburse them for the time lost. That is particularly true since the Board, as it did, was bound to recognize and concede the meployers' good faith in seeking to make amends. 17 The remaining issue has to do with the Board's conclusion that section 8(a)(5) was violated in that the employer dealt 'directly with the employees in the bargaining unit.' Of course, in one sense, it did so, but under circumstances we have already noted and not to the exclusion of the Union. The Board recognized, as the Examiner had made abundantly clear, that these six Greenbrier plumbers, their Local and its business agent in dealing with this employer, had established what the Examiner had called a 'pattern of conduct,' satisfactory to all parties. Yet, it was 'different' this time, said the Board, because the employer 'was seeking to modify the (presently outstanding) agreement by presenting the business agent with a contract already approved by the employees, without his intervention or representation.' The record taken as a whole does not sustain the Board. 18 First, there was no such 1960 'contract.' No party was bound. The Board itself said the employer was seeking to 'modify' the 1959 agreement, obviously recognizing it was still in force. No such 1960 'contract' was thereafter consummated, and the men who remained on the job continued to work under the 1959-1961 agreement. What was signed by four of the men was a letter, which expressly and in so many words contemplated 'that a contract will be executed on their behalf between the said Local Union and the said White Sulphur Springs Company.' The device of utilizing such a writing previously had been created, the record shows, not by the Company, but by the Local's business agent, Hunt, and for his information. 19 Next, the Board recited in its reconstruction of the situation that the employer's chief engineer 'explained to the six plumbers that if they signed the letter of intent indicating approval of the new contract, the Employer would put te new wage provisions in to effect.' We have scoured the transcript without finding a line of evidence to sustain the Board's finding to any such effect. There is nothing to show that the letter in 1960, as in 1958 and 1959, had or was intended to have any greater purpose than to indicate to the business agent Hunt the basis upon which a new contract was to be evolved. 8 20 In any such situation involving what Compton called 'business,' Hunt, the business agent, either in person or by mail, had procured over the years a canvass of the men. He then relied upon and followed the majoiryt position upon receipt of advices as to what it was. Hunt testified that when he 'met with the (Greenbrier) men, they would give me permission to open it or tell me what they wanted.' Thus is February, 1959, he acted 'to open the contract provision pertaining to wages.' So in 1960, the plumbers voted not to reopen the 1959-1961 contract, and Compton sent word to Hunt they would 'leave her like she is, the majority said, and if Mr. Wright gives anybody a raise, he will give us all a raise.' Again, as recently as July, 1959, Hunt acted in accordance with the letter of intent, supra note 2, pursuant to which he 'signed the contract.' 'Q. Did you do that because a majority of the men in the local unit at the hotel had indicated they wanted this contract signed? A. I would say yes.' 'Q. Did you ever complain of the fact that the men had signed this letter of intent? (supra note 2) A. Not to my knowledge.' 21 The record simply does not sustain the Board's findings in the mentioned respects upon which it rested its conclusions. There was no suggestion at any time by the employer that it would unilaterally-- and without negotiation with Hunt-- grant wage increases, or otherwise reject the 1959-1961 contract. Called as a witness by the General Counsel, the employer's general manager Wright, was corroborated by Compton and Boone. Wright's exact testimony ran thus: 22 'Q. By (General Counsel) Did you tell the six plumber employees that they could receive wage increases and other benefits given to the other hotel employees represented by the labor organizations other than the charging party if the plumbers so desired? A. If they so desired and negotiated a new contract through their Business Agent. 23 'Q. Did you tell the plumber employees that if they chose to receive the new wages and the benefits that a new collective bargaining agreement would have to be had between the hotel company and the charging party? A. Yes, sir. 24 'Q. Did you tell the six plumber employees that they always had a choice of working under the terms and conditions of their contract which was effective June 16, 1959, which is General Counsel's Exhibit No. 2? A. Yes, sir.' 25 The plumbers were given the period July 21-July 25 within which to make their own decision. Except for that Friday afternoon's mischanced episode, there would be nothing whatever to this case, 9 and such 'discrimination' or other untoward result as might be attributed to that circumstances, was cured by the employer's bona fide offer to reinstate Compton and Boone with pay for the time they had lost. It might even have been concluded that the employer so acted-- not in derogation of the Local's position under the 1959-1961 agreement-- but because of it. Hunt told Murphy and the latter told his superiors, the plumbers were to go back to work Saturday morning under the 'old' contract, provided Compton and Boone were reinstated with back pay. The offer followed.