Court Opinion

ID: 9446511
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:57:09.896737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:40.969595
License: Public Domain

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my opinion there is substantial evidence to support the Board’s finding that there had been a violation of § 8(a) (5) by the Company.
Two reasons were advanced in the Company’s letter of February 20, 1956 as grounds for its refusal to bargain with the Union. One is that it doubted that the Union represented a majority of the Bangor employees. The majority of the court indicates that the good faith of this ground is supported by the Board’s finding that it had been reported to the Company management that a num*642ber of employees at the Bangor plant were dissatisfied with the Union, desired to defect from it, and intended to vote against it at the forthcoming election. But it is difficult to see how this defense can be asserted in good faith by an employer which by its unfair labor practices may well have caused a substantial number of these employees to become dissatisfied with the Union and thus cause it to lose its majority status as of February 20, 1956. It is well established that where the employer thwarts the possibility of a fair election, the Board has authority to require the employer to recognize a Union which clearly represented the majority of its employees prior to the initiation of unfair labor practices by that employer. National Labor Relations Board v. Warren Company, 1955, 350 U.S. 107, 76 S.Ct. 185, 100 L.Ed. 96; Franks Bros. Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 1944, 321 U.S. 702, 64 S.Ct. 817, 88 L.Ed. 1020; National Labor Relations Board v. Idaho Egg Producers, 9 Cir., 1956, 229 F.2d 821; National Labor Relations Board v. Wheeling Pipe Line, 8 Cir., 1956, 229 F.2d 391; National Labor Relations Board v. Pyne Molding Corp., 2 Cir., 1955, 226 F.2d 818; National Labor Relations Board v. Armco Drainage & Metal Products, Inc., 6 Cir., 1955, 220 F.2d 573, certiorari denied 350 U.S. 838, 76 S.Ct. 76, 100 L.Ed. 748; National Labor Relations Board v. Hamilton, 10 Cir., 1955, 220 F.2d 492; National Labor Relations Board v. Geigy Co., 9 Cir., 1954, 211 F.2d 553, certiorari denied 348 U.S. 821, 75 S.Ct. 33, 99 L.Ed. 647; National Labor Relations Board v. Kobritz, 1 Cir., 1951, 193 F.2d 8.
The second ground for refusal to recognize the Union set forth in the February 20, 1956 letter is based upon the Company’s belief that its operations were such as to require a company-wide bargaining unit rather than separate bargaining units in Portland and Bangor. The Board’s arguments that this defense per se was unreasonable and in bad faith are entirely unconvincing.1 But on the other hand the Company by its coercion of its employees vitiated any standing which it had to assert this ground in support of its refusal to bargain. If the Company intended to rely in good faith upon the existence of a company-wide bargaining unit rather than individual plant units, there would have been no necessity for the Company to have indulged in the commission of coercive tactics aimed at dissuading its Bangor employees from support of a Union claiming a majority of only the Bangor plant employees.2 Thus viewed in the context of this Company coercion, there would appear, in my opinion, substantial evidence that the Company had committed a violation of § 8(a)(5).
I would enforce the Board’s order in its entirety.
On Petition for Rehearing

. If there had been no other unfair labor practices, it is clear there would have been no violation of § 8(a) (5) by the Company in refusing to recognize the Union.

. There were only thirty-seven employees at the Bangor plant as compared to approximately two hundred employees at the Portland plant.