Court Opinion

ID: 9454894
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:02:55.900901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:21.871487
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM:
The Board complains that the Court imposes on the Board an “unrealistically ‘ideal’ standard.” We do not so intend. We are in full agreement with the Board’s explanations of its “laboratory” standard in Morganton Full Fashioned Hosiery, 1954, 107 N.L.R.B. 1534, 1538,1 and in Liberal Market, Inc., 1954, 108 N.L.R.B. 1481, 1482.2
As indicated later by the Board in International Mfg. Co., 1967, 167 N.L.R.B. No. 105, from which we quoted in footnote 14 to our original opinion, the task js “ * -x- -x- evaluate properly the probable effect of conduct which is coercive in nature. * * * The controlling factor here is whether the conduct involved tends to interfere with a free and uncoerced choice by the employees.” The test was more elaborately stated by this Court in a case decided shortly after our original decision in the instant case:
“ * * * the ultimate question here is not whether any improprieties occurred during the campaign, but whether in the circumstances, the particular conduct complained of ‘created an environment of tension or coercion such as to preclude employees from exercising a free choice. For conduct to warrant setting aside an election, not only must that conduct be coercive, but it must be so related to the election as to have had a probable effect upon the employees’ actions at the polls.’ NLRB v. Zelrich Company, 344 F.2d 1011, 1015 (5th Cir. 1965).”
NLRB v. Golden Age Beverage Co., 5 Cir. 1969, 415 F.2d 26.
Further as recognized in our original opinion:
“Our scope of review is limited to ascertaining whether there is substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole to support the Board’s decision and order. 29 U.S..C. § 160(e) and (f). Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 1951, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456, NLRB v. Houston Chronicle Publishing Co., 5 Cir. 1962, 300 F.2d 273.”
416 F.2d 394. And still further, “this Court must review, on an ad hoc basis, the fairness of the Board's application of its chosen standard.” 416 F.2d 395. There is thus no escape from a careful examination of the record in each case to enable this Court to meet its responsibility “for the reasonableness and fairness of Labor Board decisions.” Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 1952, 340 U.S. 474, 490, 71 S.Ct. 456, 466, 95 L.Ed. 456. On petition for rehearing we have again reviewed the record and, for the reasons stated in the original opinion, we adhere to our conclusion that the Board’s *401order is not supported by the record considered as a whole.
The petition for rehearing is denied and no member of this panel nor Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12), the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is denied.

. “ * * * the adoption of a laboratory standard should not be construed to mean that the Board will ignore the realities of industrial life. In this respect, we are not unmindful of the fact that the ‘laboratory’ for election purposes is usually an industrial plant where vigorous campaigning and discussion normally take place * * * ”

. “In deciding whether the registration of a free choice is shown to have been unlikely, the Board must recognize that Board elections do not occur in a laboratory where controlled or artificial conditions must be established. We seek to establish ideal conditions insofar as possible, but we appraise the actual facts in light of realistic standards of human conduct.”