Opinion ID: 186604
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Union's Organizing Campaign

Text: 4 During the time period relevant to our inquiry, Cogburn was a family-owned and operated nursing home providing medical care in Mobile, Alabama. In October 1995, the Union began a campaign to organize Cogburn's full-time and regular part-time service and maintenance employees. Over the course of the following six-to-nine months, Union organizers distributed leaflets and authorization cards to Cogburn employees who were exiting and entering Company property. On April 18, 1996, after collecting signed authorization cards from a majority of the service and maintenance employees, the Union unsuccessfully sought to bargain with Cogburn on behalf of the employees. The Union also petitioned the Board for a representation election covering the employees. The Board scheduled an election for July 1996. 5 Throughout the spring and early summer of 1996, the Company engaged in a concerted campaign to undermine the Union's support. Cogburn hired a private police force consisting of approximately 35 off-duty Mobile city police officers and installed surveillance equipment directed at the front of the facility where the Union organizers were rallying support. The Company also required its employees to attend mock collective bargaining sessions, at which they were instructed to follow a script in which the Cogburn representative rejected every Union offer. Several Company supervisors and Cogburn co-owner and Vice President, Steve Roberts, conducted a series of interrogations — conversations during which they questioned employees about Union activities and their and other employees' feelings about the Union. Finally, during the course of the organizing campaign, six well-known Union supporters were discharged for their Union activities and sympathies. 6 The Board held a secret-ballot election on July 19, 1996. Of the approximately 135 eligible voters, 52 cast votes in favor of the Union, and 72 against. The Union then filed ULP charges with the Board. After a series of hearings held between March and September 1997, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that Cogburn had committed numerous violations of the Act. The ALJ recommended, inter alia, that the Company be required to reinstate and grant backpay to the six discharged employees and to bargain with the Union as the exclusive representative of the employees. Cogburn Healthcare Ctr., 335 N.L.R.B. at 1425-26.