Court Opinion

ID: 9453363
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:11:12.865251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:37.631743
License: Public Domain

BOREMAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially).
In November of 1964 the Union commenced a campaign to organize Company *277employees. By letter of December 1, 1964, addressed to the Company, the Union demanded recognition, claiming that it represented a majority of the employees in a specified bargaining unit and requested a meeting with the Company on December 2, 1964, at a designated place or, if it should not be convenient for the Company to meet at that time and place, that the Union be advised so that a mutually convenient time and place might be selected. However, by letter of the same date the Union filed a petition for an election seeking certification as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in the designated unit. On December 31, the Regional Director directed a secret ballot election to be held on January 22, 1965. The Company ignored the Union’s request for a meeting and it does not appear that at any time thereafter the Company formally responded to the Union’s demand for recognition. The Company insists that under the circumstances it was not only entitled but- was under a duty to withhold recognition of the Union pending the results of the election.
There was evidence to support a finding that twenty-seven out of forty-three of the employees in the unit had signed union cards which clearly authorized the Union to act as collective bargaining agent in dealing with their employer with regard to wages, hours and other conditions of employment. From the evidence submitted before the Examiner there was no hint of impropriety in the solicitation or execution of the cards and there was strong evidence to support the finding that all twenty-seven cards were valid. At no time during the earlier stages of the proceedings, or thereafter, did the Company assert a doubt as to the selection of the Union by a majority of its employees as their bargaining representative. The Company asserts no objective facts or subjective belief warranting rejection of the cards on the basis of a good faith doubt.
On October 27, 1967, the case of N. L. R. B. v. S. S. Logan Packing Company, 386 F.2d 562, was decided and this court there declined to enforce a Board order requiring the company to bargain with the union which was seeking to obtain recognition by means other than an election, i. e., on the sole basis of signed union cards. We there pointed out, for certain assigned reasons, “a card check is not a reliable indication of the employees’ wishes.” However, in Logan, the course of conduct of the company, following the union’s demand for recognition, evidenced the company’s good faith doubt of the union’s claim that it represented a majority of the employees. There was no evidentiary basis for a rejection of the employer’s assertion of doubt as to the union’s claim. The company filed a formal charge of coercive practices by the union in the use of threats to obtain signatures to authorization cards but the Regional Director refused to issue a complaint. On the other hand, a complaint issued on union charges of violations of section 8(a) (1) and (5) of the Act. We accepted in Logan the Board’s finding of coercive questioning and surveillance of employees after the union’s demand for bargaining; but we reached the conclusion that all of the specifics in the record tended to enhance, rather than diminish, the company’s doubt of the union’s claim and that if the company had any information tending to support the union’s claim the record failed to disclose it. We refused to enforce the Board’s order requiring the company to bargain with the union and rejected the finding that the company had refused to bargain in violation of the Act. However, we did recognize that the employer’s duty to bargain follows actual recognition of union representation or under circumstances where recognition is wrongfully withheld when the union clearly represents a majority of the employees and the employer has no doubt of it. In short, on the facts in Logan, we concluded that there was no duty on the company to recognize the union or to bargain with it.
In the instant case there was ample evidence upon the whole record to support the Board’s determination that shortly *278after the receipt of the Union’s letter demanding recognition and requesting a bargaining session the Company began a concerted drive calculated to discourage employees from voting for the Union in the upcoming election. The success of the effort is evidenced by the results of the election, the Union receiving only six votes. There was evidence to support the Board’s finding of violations of section 8 (a), (1), (3), and (4) of the Act.
There was nothing to indicate any doubt whatever by the Company that the Union had been selected by a majority of the employees as their representative. The employer is forbidden by pertinent law to interfere with the employees’ right to exercise a free and untrammeled choice of a bargaining representative through the election process. Under the facts and circumstances here, as distinguished from those in Logan, I concur.