Court Opinion

ID: 9449197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 00:00:42.779692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:45.250386
License: Public Domain

BRATTON, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I share with the majority the view that the court is presently without jurisdiction to review the proceedings involving the selection of a bargaining representative. And I also share with the majority the view that mere general statements of an official or supervising representative of an employer to its assembled employees to the effect that it disfavors the union as their bargaining representative, standing alone and without more, does not constitute an unfair labor practice.
But this case does not turn upon whether general statements of that kind, standing alone and without more, suffice to constitute an unfair labor practice. The boundaries of the case are not restricted to those narrow limits. In addition to making general statements indicating hostility to the union as bargaining agent for the employees, the statement was made in private conversation to an employee that if the union came in the employee stood a chance to lose benefits under the plan and program of the company. A day or two before the election a supervising representative of the company took pictures of representatives of the union passing out literature to employees of the company at points immediately adjacent to the plant of the company. And the representative also took a picture of an automobile belonging to a representative of the union which was parked near the property of the company. While the general statements of hostility to the union did not of themselves constitute an unfair labor practice, the trial examiner was warranted in taking them into consideration as background tending to lend corroborative support to the evidence that the statement was made to the employee and the pictures were taken, not innocently or in the abstract, but with the intent and purpose of producing coercive influence or pressure upon the employees in the selection of their bargaining representative.
I think the order should be enforced.