Opinion ID: 339061
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Threats of Reprisals

Text: 11 The Board held that the Employer violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by interfering with its employees' organizational rights guaranteed under Section 7, 29 U.S.C. § 157, 8 finding that its officers had coercively interrogated and threatened certain employees concerning Union-related activities. This conclusion is fully supported by undisputed facts and evidence in the record. During December, 1973, Lasaponara, then president of the Company, held a series of meetings with his employees whom he interrogated in his office, two at a time, concerning the reasons why they wanted or thought they needed a union. Crediting the testimony of certain of these employees while rejecting Lasaponara's corresponding denials, the Administrative Law Judge determined that at some of these meetings Lasaponara made undisguised threats of reprisal to employees for assisting or being sympathetic to the unionization drive under way at Oriskany. Lasaponara told several employees that if they helped the Union he would fix them. He told others that he could not give them their scheduled raises so long as they dealt with the Union. Similarly, a supervisor of the Company, John Kosh, stated to one employee in November, 1973, that it would be futile for the employees to select the Union since the employer would not accept the Union as an agent for the employees. 9 In addition, it was found by the Administrative Law Judge that on two occasions early in 1974 production manager Fazzino 10 questioned several employees about the identity of those who had been active in promoting the Union or had signed authorization cards on its behalf and whether any Union meetings had taken place. Fazzino was also found to have crumpled and thrown on the floor a petition signed by several employees protesting the scheduling of work on Palm Sunday and calling the employee who had presented him with it, Eva Wilson, Chairman of the Union shop committee, a troublemaker. 12 These actions taken by the president of the Company and its production manager and supervisor constitute archetypal Section 8(a)(1) violations since they were calculated to frustrate the union's organization campaign by instilling fear of reprisals in the employees. N. L. R. B. v. L. E. Farrell Co., Inc., 360 F.2d 205, 207 (2d Cir. 1966). The president of the Company called the employees into his office and there questioned and explicitly threatened them concerning the Union. A clearer example of coercive interrogation would be difficult to imagine. See, N. L. R. B. v. Gladding Keystone Corp., 435 F.2d 129 (2d Cir. 1970); N. L. R. B. v. Milco, Inc., 388 F.2d 133 (2d Cir. 1968). Fazzino's request for the names of those who had signed authorization cards plainly indicated to the interrogated employees that open support of the Union would undoubtedly place one in an unfavorable light with the Employer in contrast to those employees who refrained from exercising their statutory rights. That this would be the case was dramatically demonstrated when Fazzino called Eva Wilson a troublemaker and threw the proffered petition on the ground. Similarly, Kosh's remark about the purported futility of supporting the Union could have had no other purpose but to discourage such an effort by the employees. These kinds of statements by employers' agents are prohibited by Section 8(a)(1). See N. L. R. B. v. Long Island Airport Limousine Service Corp., 468 F.2d 292, 296-97 (2d Cir. 1972); N. L. R. B. v. Gerbes Super Markets, Inc., 436 F.2d 19 (8th Cir. 1971); N. L. R. B. v. International Metal Specialties, Inc., 433 F.2d 870 (2d Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 907, 91 S.Ct. 1378, 28 L.Ed.2d 647 (1971); Snyder Tank Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 428 F.2d 1348 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1021, 91 S.Ct. 583, 27 L.Ed.2d 632 (1970); Federation of Union Representatives v. N. L. R. B., 339 F.2d 126, 129-30 (2d Cir. 1964). 13