Court Opinion

ID: 9450327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:42:09.401832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:14.986494
License: Public Domain

KILEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
In my opinion the reasons underlying the holdings invalidating unilateral rules against solicitation on employees’ time on company property, e. g., Republic Aviation Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 324 U.S. 793, 65 S.Ct. 982, 89 L.Ed. 1372 (1945), N. L. R. B. v. United Aircraft Corp., 324 F.2d 128 (2d Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 951, 84 S.Ct. 969, 11 L.Ed.2d 971 (1964), Time-O-Matic, Inc. v. N. L. R. B., 264 F.2d 96 (7th Cir. 1959), apply with equal force to the contract provision before us. The footnote in May Department Stores relied on by the majority is not, in my opinion, sufficient authority for reversing the Board.
The heart of the matter and the broad policy of the Act which invalidates particular agreements is the protection of the “right of employees to organize for mutual aid without employer interference.” 324 U.S. at 798, 65 S.Ct. at 985. The employer indirectly interferes with this freedom when it enters into this type of agreement with the bargaining agent. The right of freedom to organize belongs to dissidents as well as the bargaining agent, and limiting its exercise by no-solicitation agreements, as the one before us, tends to smother competitive union organizational activity and accordingly militates against the purposes of the Act.
The agreement to relinquish this valuable l-ight should not be upheld in the absence of “special circumstances.” There is no evidence of any actual disruption of working activities resulting from these solicitation attempts, and none to show that such solicitation on nonworking time *393would disrupt work. Also, there was no evidence tending to show effective alternatives available to the rival union to solicitation on the premises of the Company. This proof was the burden of the Company under the holding in Republic Aviation Corp. v. N. L. R. B., 324 U.S. 793, 65 S.Ct. 982 (1945), as to unilateral no-solicitation rules.
I think also that the record supports the Board’s finding and conclusion that conceding the contact provision is valid, the Company’s enforcement of the provision was an unfair labor practice. The record justifies an inference that the Company demanded membership cards from the rival union. Under the reasoning in N. L. R. B. v. Essex Wire Corp., 245 F.2d 589 (9th Cir. 1957), this was an unfair labor practice as a coercive influence exercised on employees by the Company.