Court Opinion

ID: 9448035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:20:51.593313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:15.787843
License: Public Domain

SOBELOFF, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
The Labor Board’s position is neither unsupported by the record nor unreasonable, and I find no warrant for refusing enforcement of its order. The evidence at the hearing clearly furnishes a foundation for the Board’s conclusion that the walkout of the seven employees constituted concerted activity protesting the unsatisfactory working conditions in the machine shop. Whatever notice or demand upon the employer might be required in other circumstances need not be decided, for no additional notice or -demand was necessary under the well supported findings of this case.
The employer’s contention that the activities of these men did not amount to concerted activity is refuted by the findings of the Examiner and the Board, based upon testimony of the employees. 'The Board states:
“The Trial Examiner found, and we agree, that the Respondent violated Section 8(a) (1) in terminating the employment of the 7 complainants who were engaged in protected concerted activity under the Act. We rely, inter alia, upon the following: the credited testimony of employee Hovis that ‘We all got together and thought it would be a good idea to go home; maybe we could get some heat brought into the plant that way;’ the credited testimony of employees Heinlein, Caron and George as to . previous complaints made to the Respondent’s foreman over the cold working conditions, and to the effect that the men left on the morning of January 5 in protest of the coldness at the plant; and the evidence that the 7 complainants left the shop at approximately the same time.”
My brethren apparently agree that if there had been a notice or demand, the walkout would be concerted activity protected by the Act. However, the court denies enforcement because, it is said, “An important and necessary qualification of the right to exert pressure on an employer through work stoppages is that such - pressure be exerted in support of a demand or request made to the employer.” There was, however, such notice to the émployer in the instant case.1 On a number of earlier occasions complaints had been made about the lack of heat in the shop. On the morning of the walkout, employee Caron discussed the coldness with the foreman, Jarvis. Also, as the men were walking out, they told Jarvis that it was too cold to remain and work.
Furthermore, the employer, through its foreman, indicated that the men should go home. Jarvis told Caron: “If those fellows had any guts at all, they would go home.” When Caron reported back to the men, he told them that the foreman had suggested that they leave. Under these circumstances it is plainly improper to upset the Board’s decision..

. That notice of the reasons for concerted activity need not follow any prescribed form is clearly shown by the second of the two paragraphs quoted in the court’s opinion from N. L. R. B. v. Ford Radio & Mica Corp., 2 Cir., 1958, 258 F.2d 457, 465. There, unlike the present .case, management did not precipitously fire employees. It took action only after futile attempts to learn the cause of the employees’ grievance. In the instant case, by no stretch of the facts was management “placed in the position of having to guess at its peril the purpose behind the strike.” Id., at page 464.