Opinion ID: 287676
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: work uniforms

Text: 22 Before the strike the Company did not supply uniforms or work clothing to any employees except those who worked around the plant and came into contact with the public. During negotiations, the Union proposed that free uniforms be provided for all employees. The Company at first objected, saying that employees should continue to provide their own work clothes. Later the Company countered with an offer to provide work uniforms if and when required. The Union rejected this counterproposal. After the strike commenced and many of the replacements, largely unskilled migrant workers, were unable to afford the kind of clothing that the Company considered necessary in order that they might make a presentable appearance, the Company began supplying uniforms to all of its employees. 23 The Union contends that the Company's proposal to provide uniforms to its employees at such time as they were needed was tantamount to a flat refusal to recognize the Union's right to negotiate on this subject, and that its subsequent grant of the benefit constituted an abrupt about-face in the Company's recent bargaining position. The Board acted consistently with the policies of the Act in finding these contentions to be without merit. The first argument overlooks the fact that implicit in the Company's counterproposal were concessions to the Union, namely, that the Company would not require employees to furnish uniforms at their own expense and that if the uniforms were required they would be furnished free of charge. The second contention overlooks the changed circumstances following the strike, namely, that the impoverished replacements did not make a presentable appearance in their own clothes. 7 In short, the Company made a legitimate offer to furnish uniforms when needed, did not revoke the offer, and acted on that offer under the changed circumstances following the strike. Cf. Caroline Farms Division of Textron, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 401 F.2d 205, 211 (C.A. 4, 1968). Since the new benefit conferred after the strike was not more favorable to the employees than the offers which the Company had previously extended to the Union at the bargaining table the Board not unreasonably found that by conferring it the Company did not violate Section 8(a) (1) and (5) of the Act. American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, etc. v. N.L.R.B., 129 U.S.App.D.C. 399, 406, 395 F.2d 622, 629-630 (1968). Cf. N.L.R.B. v. Crompton-Highland Mills, Inc., 337 U.S. 217, 225, 69 S.Ct. 960, 93 L.Ed. 1320 (1949).