Court Opinion

ID: 9451299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:12:55.675037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:39.257640
License: Public Domain

LARSON, District Judge
(dissenting).
Respectfully, I dissent. In my view, the statements of Respondent’s president Wilson should not be granted the protection afforded by Section 8(c) of the Act. In particular, I would find that Wilson’s statements suggesting loss of employment following an economic strike were coercive and threatening. The majority categorizes these statements as a “forecast.” While Wilson may have been careful to couch his language in- terms of prediction, or statement of legal position, in my opinion they could be construed to threaten inevitable loss of jobs following Union certification. When the speeches are totaled up,1 and considered in context, I think they slipped over the line of permissible argument and expression. The context in which these statements are to be viewed should be more than a literary or grammatical context. They ought to be placed in the light of the type of industry involved, its location, the relative sophistication of the employees, etc. These are among the considerations which should be left to the specialized experience of the Board. In this case, I think it was reasonable for the Board to conclude that the language used had a coercive and intimidating effect.2
I am not unmindful of the constitutional dimensions of the question. Of course, employers’ views are given the same protection by the First Amendment as the ideas of any other group. Nonetheless, under prevailing constitutional theory, freedom of expression is not an absolute and unqualified right, although some would make it so.3 Speech may thus be circumscribed where, on the balance of *433the interests, an over-riding societal purpose demands that expression, be regulated.4 The limitation embodied in the proviso clause of Section 8(e) of the Act should withdraw constitutional immunity from the speech here.
I would enforce the Board’s order.

. “Even if we assume that each of the key statements in the Daniel speeches considered separately would be lawful (neither the examiner nor the Board made a ruling to this effect), it still does not follow that we must accept the proposition pressed upon us by the company. Daniel may have accurately stated an accepted rule of mathematics, but words and speech are not governed entirely by mechanical mathematical concepts. Words and phrases, each lawful when considered alone, can be united in such a fashion as to yield an improper end product.” Daniel Construction Company v. N.L.R.B., 341 F.2d 805 (4th Cir. 1965).

. “It is often difficult to determine whether certain statements by management constitute permissible forceful argument in support of management’s opposition to the advent of a union, or constitute an illegal threat to the employees in the event the union should win the election. In such cases, if the inference or conclusion found by the Board that the statements constituted a threat is a reasonable one, which it was permissible for the Board to make, its conclusion will not be set aside on review, even though a different inference or conclusion may seem more plausible and reasonable to us.” (Citations omitted). Surprenant Mfg. Co. v. N.L.R.B., 341 F.2d 756, 760 (6th Cir. 1965).

. Black, The Bill of Rights, 35 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 882 (1960).

. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964); Beauharnais v. People of State of Illinois, 343 U.S. 250, 72 S.Ct. 725, 96 L.Ed. 919 (1952); Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S.Ct. 857, 95 L.Ed. 1137 (1951).