Court Opinion

ID: 9469398
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:39:47.48272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:22.497029
License: Public Domain

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I set forth the Board’s holding on the merits, because I think it is sound:
In adopting the Administrative Law Judge’s conclusion that Respondent’s conduct violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act, we note that it is well established that, absent legitimate justification, an employer’s photographing of its employees while they are engaged in protected concerted activity constitutes unlawful surveillance. See, e.g., Glomac Plastics, Inc., 234 NLRB 1309, 1320 (1978); Larand Leisurelies, Inc., 213 NLRB 197, 207 (1974); Flambeau Plastics Corporation, 167 NLRB 735, 743 (1967). We further find that Respondent has failed to establish any legitimate justification for its actions. In this regard, Respondent’s superintendent, Studohar, who directed that arrangements be made for photographing the demonstration, testified that he did so for the purpose of securing evidence for possible litigation. However, he also admitted that he had no reason to anticipate that the participants in the demonstration would engage in violent or other illegal conduct. Furthermore, as noted above, the employees in fact did not engage in such conduct and Respondent did not institute any legal action as a result of the demonstration. In similar circumstances, the Board consistently has rejected the defense raised by Respondent here. Thus, it is well settled that “purely ‘anticipatory’ photographing of peaceful picketing in the event something ‘might’ happen does not justify [an employer’s] conduct when balanced against the tendency of that con*104duct to interfere with the employees’ right to engage in concerted activity.” Glomac Plastics, Inc., supra. We, therefore, find Respondent’s conduct violative of Section 8(a)(1).
255 N.L.R.B. No. 164, at 2-4 (May 7, 1981) (footnotes omitted):
Judge Hunter’s thoughtful opinion for the majority accurately characterizes the Board’s action. The Board did not examine the circumstances of this case when it concluded that the company’s conduct tended to coerce the employees. Rather, the Board invoked a presumption that such photographing tends to coerce, and it placed the burden on the company to justify its conduct.
Were we writing on a clean slate, I might agree that a close examination of whether coercion in fact occurred should be required in every ease. We are obviously obliged, however, to follow Supreme Court precedent, and at least one case specifically authorizes the procedures employed by the Board. In Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793, 65 S.Ct. 982, 89, 1372 (1945) the Court held that the Board may, by decisional rule, create a presumption that a particular class of conduct is coercive under § 8(a)(1). Once the general counsel shows that such presumptively coercive conduct has occurred, the employer may avoid liability only by showing that, under the circumstances, its conduct was justifiable.
In Republic Aviation the Board had invoked a presumption that a no solicitation rule which precluded union solicitation on the employer’s premises during non-working periods was invalid in the absence of special justification. The Court perceived “no error in the Board’s adoption of this presumption,” 324 U.S. at 804, 65 S.Ct. at 988, and specifically approved placing the burden on the employer to show that the presumptively coercive restrictions were justified by “special circumstances.” 324 U.S. at 803-4, n.10, 65 S.Ct. at 987-88, n.10.1
I need not discuss at any length the deference that we are obliged to afford the Board in its interpretation and effectuation of the National Labor Relations Act. In my view, it is reasonable to presume as the Board did that purely “anticipatory” photographing of concerted activities tends to coerce as that term is used in the Act.
However, I agree with the Board that the company failed to establish a justification for the taking of pictures in these circumstances. It is clear in this case that United States Steel had no reason to believe that any unlawful conduct was occurring. I therefore think it was proper for the Board to conclude that the company’s conduct was an unfair labor practice under § 8(a)(1). I would affirm the Board’s order.
Certainly, some picture-taking is, at times, justified. Because litigation is so often a possibility in situations such as these, and because photographs are often the most useful records of what transpired, the company should be able to defend its conduct if it can show that it reasonably believed at the time it took the pictures that some form of unlawful conduct was occurring.2

. Interestingly, the employers in Republic Aviation argued that an unfair labor practice finding must be supported by “evidence before the Board to show that the rules and orders of the employers interfered with and discouraged union organization in the circumstances and situation of each company.” 324 U.S. at 798, 65 S.Ct. at 985. The Court specifically rejected such an approach, and upheld instead the Board’s presumption, a course which the majority in this case, by adopting an “existing circumstances” test, has chosen not to follow.

. The Seventh Circuit has upheld the Board’s right to place the burden on the employer to justify its actions in such situations:
We conclude that the Board may properly require a company to provide a solid justification for its resort to anticipatory photographing.
NLRB v. Colonial Haven Nursing Home, [MO 542 F.2d 691, 701 (7th Cir. 1976)].