Court Opinion

ID: 9454205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:39:25.370574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:01.033641
License: Public Domain

*35EDWARDS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Respondent’s reaction to the union’s claim of representation and demand for bargaining rights was to write a letter to the union business agent which said in part:
“As you may know our business is seasonal and for the past five or more years we have employed only two or at most three men in our warehouse during eight or nine months of the year. During the summer months we must provide replacements for our salesmen during their vacation periods and prior to and during this period we hire temporary help for the summer months.
“It would not be surprising if some or all of the temporary help in anticipation of permanent employment would have contacted your offices for organizing assistance.
“These temporary workers all of whom will be released before September 15, 1965, as the summer season will then be over may favor organization, but I am confident that the balance of our regular employees are not interested in having you or any other organization representing them.”
The president of the company also sent copies of this letter to all the employees involved.
The Board found no evidence that respondent’s business was seasonal or that any of the employees had been hired as temporary employees. Under the facts of this case the Board was certainly entitled to infer this letter was a threat to discharge union adherents among its warehouse employees and its driver salesmen. NLRB v. Bin-Dicator Co., 356 F.2d 210 (6th Cir. 1966).
Shortly thereafter respondent discharged (or failed to rehire) four employees. This constituted a majority of the union’s majority when its representation letter was written. The Board found (and we have found) that these discharges were discriminatory and in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
On these facts the Board held:
“The reasons set forth in his September 1 letter to the Union, rather than revealing a reasonable basis for doubting the Union’s majority, constituted a patent and unlawful attempt to dissuade the employees from supporting the Union. Respondent’s defense to the Section 8(a) (5) charge herein is that it had a good-faith doubt that the Union represented a majority of the employees in the appropriate unit. ‘This good-faith doubt must have some reasonable basis and is not established merely by the employer’s assertion of doubt of the majority.’ N. L. R. B. v. Superior Sales, Inc., 63 LRRM 2197, 2203 [366 F.2d 229] (C.A.8). No reasonable basis for doubt of the Union’s majority on the part of the Company has been shown. To the contrary, the conduct of the Respondent herein from the date it first received the Union’s demand for recognition demonstrated a desire on its part to frustrate its employees’ self-organizational aspirations and to undermine the Union’s majority. The Company rejected the Union’s bargaining request, not because it entertained a good-faith doubt as to the Union’s majority, but because it rejected the collective-bargaining principle and was seeking time within which to evaporate the Union’s strength. In such circumstances, therefore, the Company’s refusal to recognize and bargain collectively with the Union constituted violations of Section 8(a) (1) and (5) of the Act.”
I believe that on this record the Board had sufficient evidence to reject respondent’s good-faith doubt claim and to find that respondent refused to bargain because it “rejected the collective-bargaining principle and was seeking time within which to evaporate the Union’s strength.” In its essentials this case seems to me to be on all fours with NLRB v. Priced-Less Discount Foods, Inc., 405 F.2d 67 (6th Cir. 1968); *36Thrift Drug Co. v. NLRB, 404 F.2d 1097 (6th Cir. 1968); NLRB v. Cumberland Shoe Corp., 351 F.2d 917 (6th Cir. 1965); NLRB v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 341 F.2d 750 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 830, 86 S.Ct. 69, 15 L.Ed.2d 74 (1965); Joy Silk Mills v. NLRB, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 360, 185 F.2d 732 (D.C.Cir. 1950), cert. denied, 341 U.S. 914, 71 S.Ct. 734, 95 L.Ed. 1350 (1951).
Absent the gross violations of the NLRA referred to above, I would join my colleagues in holding that the union should have taken the initiative and offered a card check of its majority. But I hardly see how we can hold that the respondent fired 50% of the employees in the bargaining unit for the unlawful purpose of interfering with employee rights to collective bargaining and still hold that this record does not support the Board’s finding that respondent in bad faith refused to recognize and bargain with the union.
What this court has just said in another case seems entirely appropriate to this case:
“All in all, the course of conduct shown on the part of petitioner immediately after receipt of the union’s demand for bargaining rights was that of an employer determined to defeat unionization regardless of the wishes of the employees and completely without regard to the law. The violation of the NLRA found in this case can by no means be characterized as ‘borderline’ section 8(a) (1) violations as in NLRB v. Ben Duthler, Inc., 395 F.2d 28 (6th Cir. 1968), or as 8(a) (1) violations ‘without more’ as in Lane Drug Co. v. NLRB, 391 F.2d 812 (6th Cir. 1968). * * * The Trial Examiner and the Board had ample reason to conclude that petitioner’s course of conduct represented rejection of collective bargaining rather than a good faith doubt of the union’s majority status.
“Under the factual circumstances of this case, we believe that the findings and conclusions of the Board have substantial support in this whole record. Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, [17 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456] (1951).
“Enforcement of the bargaining order may well be the only way to remedy the illegal course of conduct deliberately chosen by petitioner. NLRB v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 341 F.2d 750 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 830, [86 S.Ct. 69, 15 L.Ed.2d 74] (1965); NLRB v. Cumberland Shoe Corp., 351 F.2d 917 (6th Cir. 1965); NLRB v. Delight Bakery, Inc., 353 F.2d 344 (6th Cir. 1965).” Thrift Drug Co. v. NLRB, 404 F.2d 1097, 1099 (6th Cir. 1968).
I would grant enforcement of the entire National Labor Relations Board order.