Court Opinion

ID: 9463408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:05:43.225195+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:05.021706
License: Public Domain

WEBSTER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The laboratory climate which the Board requires for a certification election contemplates a setting in which a reasonable man is free to exercise his choice without fear of reprisal or promise of benefit. See General Shoe Corp., 77 N.L.R.B. 124, 127 (1948). An election may be set aside if it is materially affected by any party’s misrepresentations, use of coercion, or improper promise of economic benefit. See NLRB v. Savair Mfg. Co., 414 U.S. 270, 94 S.Ct. 495, 38 L.Ed.2d 495 (1973) (union’s promise to waive initiation fees of those signing authorization cards); Landis Tool Co., Division of Litton Industries, 460 F.2d 23 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 915, 93 S.Ct. 237, 34 L.Ed.2d 177 (1972) (employer’s coercive tactics); La-Crescent Constant Care Center, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 510 F.2d 1319 (8th Cir. 1975) (union’s material misrepresentation).
Additionally, the Board has recognized that if a particular group of employees would have difficulty expressing their intentions by use of a ballot printed in English, assistance in some form must be provided on request to insure that the election will reflect the employees’ true intent. An election will be set aside if this assistance is not provided. Fibre Leather Mfg. Corp., 167 N.L.R.B. 393 (1967). See also Marriott In-Flite Services Division v. N. L. R. B., 417 F.2d 563, 565 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 920, 90 S.Ct. 929, 25 L.Ed.2d 101 (1970).
In setting aside the Board's certification and bargaining orders in the instant case, the Court does not rely on these established *408principles. It does not point to any aspect of the election process which fell below the “laboratory conditions” standards, or demonstrate that this was a ease requiring assistance for certain employees.1 Instead, the Court relies on its own determination, based principally on the statements and conduct of these three employees, that one of the employees made a mistake in voting. It seems to me that the objectives of the National Labor Relations Act are best served by refusing to allow such evidence of mistake to overturn an election, even if the result is that an occasional mistake which could affect the outcome of an election goes uncorrected.
Quite apart from the dilatory purpose for which assertions of mistake could be used, entertaining such contentions creates a very real opportunity to expose the employees to coercion, from either the employer or the union. If either party were free to question an employee about his vote simply because he had previously voiced a different sentiment, the employee would be subject to coercion to avoid accusations of betrayal from the side he had appeared to favor. The purpose of the secret ballot is to assure the voter his right to exercise his true choice in secret no matter what he may have felt it necessary to say previously.2
It is better that an election fairly conducted be allowed to stand regardless of claims of mistake than that employees whose votes were unsuccessfully challenged be made cat’s-paws in the election contest. I therefore conclude that the Board did not abuse its discretion in refusing to set aside the election. I would grant the Board’s cross-petition for enforcement.

. The only arguable basis for a challenge to the election under these standards is the Board’s failure to provide assistance to these employees, because of their limited ability to understand written English. However, no request to the Board for such assistance was made. Bilingual ballots would not have been helpful, because two of the three were virtually illiterate and none claimed to be able to read a language other than English.
In fact, the employees were coached by the company and by other employees on how to locate and identify the “yes” and “no” portions of the ballot. It is not clear that anything more could have been done.

. As a result of the challenges in the instant case, the company and the union knew that two of the three persons challenged had voted in favor of the union and one had voted against it. If one of the three gentlemen did in fact secretly want the union, he could now vote “yes” in a second election only under pain of exposure.