Opinion ID: 390053
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Union misrepresentations

Text: 21 On June 19, 1979, eight full days prior to the representation election on June 28, the Union distributed a handbill at the Flagstaff facility which charged, in essence, that an earlier announcement by Spring City that it would be closing its Deming, New Mexico facility was false and that management had made the announcement for the sole purpose of intimidating the employees into voting against union representation at Flagstaff. The handbill asserted that Spring City had earlier attempted the same sort of scare tactic at its Georgia plants and had failed. The Regional Director overruled Spring City's objection because the eight-day interval between publication of the handbill and the election gave the company a sufficient amount of time to respond to any portion of the handbill which it considered inaccurate. 22 Contrary to Spring City's assertions before this court, the presence or absence of an opportunity to respond is a factor which the Regional Director may properly take into account in determining whether to overturn a representation election on the basis of alleged campaign misrepresentations. An election is set aside due to misrepresentations  'only where one party has misrepresented material facts, the other had no opportunity to reply, and the resulting distorted presentation significantly impaired the election process.'  Heavenly Valley Ski Area v. N.L.R.B., 552 F.2d 269, 272 (9th Cir. 1977), quoting N.L.R.B. v. G.K. Turner Associates, 457 F.2d 484 (9th Cir. 1972). See also N.L.R.B. v. Masonic Homes of California, supra. We have recently upheld denial of an evidentiary hearing where the employer made no attempt to dispel alleged misstatements made by union officials eight days prior to a representation election, and the employer presented no evidence that the vote of any employee was actually affected by the misrepresentation. N.L.R.B. v. Calco-Imports-Exports, 621 F.2d 1029 (9th Cir. 1980). Spring City's contention that it lacked a meaningful opportunity to respond is without merit. 23 Another factor not cited by the Regional Director supports the decision. The alleged misrepresentations related to a matter of company policy, and not a matter of union policy. We have held that in such cases the objecting employer should present evidence that the employees were likely to accept uncritically the union's assertion. El Monte Tool & Die Casting, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 633 F.2d 160 (9th Cir. 1980). We conclude that the Regional Director did not err in overruling Spring City's first objection without an evidentiary hearing.