Court Opinion

ID: 9640194
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:00:49.457014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:28.166232
License: Public Domain

DICKINSON, District Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I fully concur in the order handed down except in two particulars, one of which at least may be of little practical importance.
The situation with which the Labor Board Act concerns itself is that the law should provide some method of disposing of labor controversies other than that of an appeal to brute force. Underlying it is the conviction that the individual employee is impotent to uphold his end in a bargain for employment. In union, however, there is strength, and hence the further conviction that employees must be organized in order to assure anything approaching equality in bargaining power with the employer. As a representative must thus speak for the organized employees, it fol*182lows that they must be free to choose their representative and that the employer must bargain with the one chosen. They are not free if the employer may, by the penalty of dismissal, forbid the organization, nor is the organization effective if the employer ignores its representative. Hence the law denounces as unfair practice the dismissal of employees for union activities or the refusal of the employer to recognize the representative of the employees. The right of an employer to select his own employees and to discontinue the employment for other reasons, cannot be ignored and is recognized in the Labor Act. Whether the discharge of an employee in a given case is for the one cause, or for other reasons, is a fact finding to be made. It is always a delicate question to decide and almost always a difficult one. The fact must, however, be found by some one, and the act commits the duty to the Labor Board. The undenied right of employees to organize implies the right to not organize, if the employees so decide, and likewise to organize in their own way. One method is for labor of a class, including employees of different employers, to form a union. The representative chosen by such a union may not be, and usually is not, himself an employee of the employer with wham he bargains. This leads to abuses generally recognized to exist. Another method is to limit membership in the organization to the employees of the employer concerned. An objection urged to this is that the representative, chosen by such an organization, would not be sufficiently independent of the employer to stand up for the interests of the employees.
It must further be recognized that, as every employee must be accorded full liberty to join the organization of his choice, by the same token he must be equally free to abstain from joining'any.
We thus have presented the three problems which confront labor — collective bargaining, so-called company unions, and open or closed shops.
The Labor Act of 1920, which was the precursor of the present act, was based upon the thought of having an impartial Labor Board pass upon the merits of any labor controversy and publish their pronouncement. No machinery for enforcing their findings was provided. The expectation was that the parties to the controversy would accept tfie findings of the Board, or, if one or both refused, that the findings made would so focus public opinion upon the merits of the dispute that neither party would defy it. This expectation was, however, not met. In the present act the enforcement machinery provided is that the Board may make its findings and then appeal to the judicial power to enforce them.
Such is the proceeding now before us. The act in the clearest terms enjoins the courts to accept the fact findings of the Board if there is support for them in the evidence. I agree that there is evidence to support the findings of the Board and that they should be enforced by the process of this court. I see, however, no call upon this court to do more than this. Translated in terms of the order we are asked to make, this means making the order except part of paragraph 3 and sub-paragraphs b, c, and d 'Of paragraph 4.
I am in accord with the order made except part of paragraph 3 and subparagraph b of paragraph 4.
I concur in paragraph 3 down to and including the word “employees” in the fourth line.
The act of Congress and the Board, by its findings, denounce as unfair practice the domination or control of any labor organization by the employer. There may be several of such organizations, one of which may be a so-called company union. The policy of the law requires the employer to keep its hands out of all, leaving the employees free to join any union or no union as the individual employee may- decide.
• My objection to the order as drawn is that it is open to the construction that it means a condemnation of a union limited in membership to the employees of any particular employer. I think the employees have the right to form such an organization, if they wish to do so. The only thing required is that the employer shall keep out of it. The like injunction requires him to keep out of all organizations, leaving the employees free to belong to any organization they please to join.
My only objection to subparagraph b of paragraph 4 is that the Board has made no finding of any sum which should be paid to discharged employees. If they are to be awarded anything the Board should find how much. Unless this is done the law has no control over what may be awarded.