Court Opinion

ID: 9640020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:55:41.112214+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:25.303948
License: Public Domain

MAJOR, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I would deny enforcement of the Board’s order for the reason that the “concerted activities” in which respondent’s insurance salesmen engaged, as found by the Board, were not for their “mutual aid or protection,” as contemplated by Sec. 7 of the Act. In my judgment, both the stated purpose of the Act and a reasonable interpretation thereof required a holding that it was never contemplated by Congress that such activities should form the basis for an unfair labor practice. It must be remembered that no labor dispute or labor union, or the right to form, join or assist a labor organization, or any right on the part of the salesmen, or refusal on the part of the respondent to bargain collectively, as those terms are defined by the Act and many times construed by the courts, are involved. Neither is there any grievance concerning wages, rates of pay, hours of employment or conditions of work. In fact, the grievance is not only petty but personal and private in its nature.
The grievance concerns the selection by respondent of a cashier, which was wholly the prerogative of management. To put it bluntly, their grievance was directed at a matter which was none of their business or concern. The opinion of the majority on this aspect of the case has the effect of enlarging the jurisdiction of the Board beyond all intendments and penalizes an employer for discharging an employee who busies himself in concert with fellow employees about matters which are none of their concern, all under the guise that it is for their “mutual aid or protection.” I would suppose under the holding of the majority that the salesmen would also be protected if they engaged in “concerted activities” regarding respondent’s president, its board of directors, its attorneys, the location of its office, or the form and contents of the policies issued by respondent which the salesmen are authorized to sell, this notwithstanding that respondent would be under no obligation to bargain with them concerning these and other matters wholly within the realm of the managerial orbit, all under the pretext that they had a “legitimate interest” in such matters.