Court Opinion

ID: 9639473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:19:18.074179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:18.961301
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
Before BIGGS, MARIS, CLARK, JONES and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.
MARIS, Circuit Judge.
After reargument before the court en banc and reconsideration of the question which this case raises as to the extent of the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, we have reached the conclusion that in our former opinion we placed too narrow a construction upon those provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., which define the limits of the Board’s jurisdiction to deal with unfair labor practices and upon those provisions of the act which define such practices. Section 10(a) of the act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 160 (a), sets out the Board’s power with respect to unfair labor practices. It provides that “The Board is empowered, as hereinafter provided, to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice (listed in section 8 [158]) affecting commerce.” This language takes us directly back to Section 8 for a description of the particular unfair labor practices with which alone, under the express limitation of Section 10(a), the Board is empowered to deal.
Section 8, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158, declares that: “It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer—
“(1) To interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7 [157 of this title].
“(2) To dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it * * *.
“(3) By discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization * * *.
“(4) To discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under this Act [chapter].
*267“(5) To refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees, subject to the provisions of section 9(a) [159(a) of this title].”
As we pointed out in our former opinion the four practices last mentioned are but particular species of the generic unfair practice which is first mentioned in the section. Consequently we are directly referred to a consideration of the extent of the rights guaranteed by Section 7 for the answer to our question. Clearly it is only those unfair practices which interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of those particular rights that may be dealt with by the Board.
Section 7, 29 U.S.C.A. § 157, provides that: “Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Tn our former opinion we took the view that the sole purpose and end of the act was to pave the way for and prevent interference with the initial exercise of the right of collective bargaining which Section 7 guarantees to employees. That right having been exercised in this case and its exercise having resulted ill a collective contract between the Ledger Company and its employees regulating wages, hours and working conditions, we held that the Board had no further jurisdiction to deal with the subsequent discriminatory discharge of an employee in violation of the contract.
The right of collective bargaining is, however, necessarily a continuing right. Collective agreements ordinarily, as in this case, run for definitely limited periods of time. Negotiations for their renewal must take place periodically and may commence, at least preliminarily, shortly after the signing of the preceding contract. Furthermore it may at any time become desirable or indeed necessary to bargain collectively for the modification of an existing collective agreement which has proved in practice to be in some respects unfair or unworkable or for the adjustment of complaints or alleged violations of such an agreement. Collective bargaining is thus seen to be a continuing and developing process by which, as the law now recognizes, the relationship between employer and employee is to be molded and the terms and conditions of employment progressively modified along lines which are mutually satisfactory to all concerned. It is not a detached or isolated procedure which, once reflected in a written agreement, becomes a final and permanent result. Section 7, as we have seen, guarantees to employees the right to organize and engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining. This right must necessarily continue so long as the prospect of future bargaining remains. It will thus be seen that the act guarantees to employees the continuous right to maintain labor organizations for the purpose of collective bargaining, after the signing of a particular collective bargaining agreement as well as before.
This conclusion is in harmony with the declaration of policy contained in the act. It is stated in section 1, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151, that the denial by employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal of employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining cause industrial strife with resulting obstruction to interstate commerce; that protection of the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively safeguards commerce and that the policy of the a.ct is to encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and to protect the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization and designation of representatives of their own choosing.
 Accordingly Section 7 of the act conferred upon the employees o f the Ledger Company in the case before us the right to maintain their organization, the Newark Newspaper Guild, after the signing of their agreement with their employer. The Board found, upon sufficient evidence, that Miss Fahy was dischaiged because of her membership in and activity on behalf of the Guild, and that this discouraged membership in the Guild. We conclude that these findings establish the existence of an unfair labor practice on the part of the Ledger Company with which the Board was empowered to deal, and that its restraining order and direction to reinstate Miss Fahy with back pay were appropriate remedies. It is settled that it is a public right created by the act which was thus enforced. In Amalgamated Utility Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co, 309 U.S. 261, 60 S.Ct. 561, 84 L.Ed. 738, Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, speaking for the Supreme Court, made this quite clear. After reviewing the procedure prescribed by the act, he said (309 U.S. *268page 265, 60 S.Ct. page 563, 84 L.Ed. 738) : '“So far, it is apparent that Congress has ■entrusted to the Board exclusively the prosecution of the proceeding by its own complaint, the conduct of the hearing, the adjudication and the granting of appropriate relief. The Board as a public agency acting in the public interest, not any private person or group, not any employee or group of employees, is chosen as the instrument to assure protection from the described unfair conduct in order to remove obstructions to interstate commerce.”
Referring to the report upon the bill of the Committee on Labor of the House of Representatives (H.R.Rep. No. 972, 74th Cong. 1st Sess. p. 21) the Chief Justice said (pages 267, 268 of 309 U.S., page 564 of 60 S.Ct, 84 L.Ed. 738):
“After referring to the suitable adaptation of the Board’s orders to the needs of particular cases, and especially to the power to reinstate employees with or without back pay, the Committee continued:
“ ‘No private right of action is contemplated. Essentially the unfair labor practices listed are matters of public concern, by their nature and consequences, present or potential; the proceeding is in the name of the Board, upon the Board’s formal complaint. The form of injunctive and affirmative order is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the bill to remove obstructions to interstate commerce which are by the law declared to be detrimental to the public weal.’ ”
Likewise in National Licorice Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 309 U.S. 350, page 362, 60 S.Ct. 569, page 576, 84 L.Ed. 799, Mr. Justice Stone said: “The proceeding authorized to be taken by the Board under the National Labor Relations Act is not for the adjudication of private rights. Amalgamated Utility Workers v. Consolidated Edison Co., 309 U.S. [page] 261, 60 S.Ct. 561, 84 L.Ed. [738], H. Rept. No. 1147, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. Committee on Labor, p. 24; cf. Federal Trade Commission v. Klesner, 280 U.S. 19, 50 S.Ct. 1, 74 L.Ed. 138, 68 A.L.R. 838. It has few of the indicia of a private litigation and makes no requirement for the presence in it of any private party other than the employer charged with an unfair labor practice. The Board acts in a public capacity to give effect to the declared public policy of the Act to eliminate and prevent obstructions to interstate commerce by encouraging collective bargaining and by protecting the ‘exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment * * *.’ § 1.”
We are thus not called upon to determine whether Miss Fahy has an individual right to secure redress for her wrongful discharge or whether the law of New Jersey affords her a forum for the appropriate redress of her grievance. The existence of such a private right in Miss Fahy in no way affects the public right or the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board to enforce it. This is clear from the express provision of Section 10(a), 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(a), that the power of the Board to prevent unfair labor practices “shall be exclusive, and shall not be affected by any other means of adjustment or prevention that has been or may be established by agreement, code, law, or otherwise.” A misconception of the nature of the Board’s process may arise from the fact that in the enforcement of the public right to have the channels of interstate commerce freed from obstructions resulting from unfair labor practices a private right of an employee may incidentally be protected or enforced. Even though private relief is thus afforded it nevertheless remains true that the Board’s powers may be invoked only when there is a public right to be protected and that its processes are never available to a private suitor.
It is apparent that' the jurisdiction of the Board to prevent unfair labor practices is very broad. It is, we think, equally clear that the exercise of this jurisdiction in any particular case, is, under the language of Section 10, discretionary with the Board. The jurisdiction is not to be exercised unless in the opinion of the Board the unfair labor practice complained of interferes so substantially with the public rights created by Section 7 as to require, its restraint in the public interest. As we have seen, the mere fact that a private right of an employee has been infringed by the act of an employer is not of itself sufficient to bring the Board’s powers into play. The Congress, has, however, reposed in the Board complete discretionary power to determine in each case whether the public interest requires it to act. With the appro*269priate exercise of that discretion we may not interfere.
The scope of the Board’s order remains for consideration. The Board, as we have seen, found that the Ledger Company, in discharging Miss Fahy because of her Guild activity, had discriminated in regard to tenure of employment and thus discouraged membership in the Guild in violation of Section 8(3). It accordingly ordered the Company to cease and desist from discouraging membership in the Guild or in any other labor organization of its employees by such discrimination and further ordered Miss Fahy’s reinstatement with back pay. So much of its order was clearly warranted. However, the Board went further. It found “that by said discrimination the respondent interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act,” and it ordered the Company by paragraph 1 (b) of its order to cease and desist from “In any other manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of their rights to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, as guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act.”
Upon the sole basis of the finding of an isolated act involving the discharge of a single employee tile Board has entered a blanket order restraining the Ledger Company from hereafter committing any act in violation of the statute however unrelated it may be to the one act found to have been previously committed. The Company is thus, for example, enjoined, under pain of punishment for contempt, from dominating or contributing support to a labor organization in violation of Section 8 (2) although there is no evidence that it has ever heretofore done so; it is likewise enjoined from refusing to bargain collectively with the representatives of its employees in violation of Section 8(5), although the evidence shows that it has actually entered into a freely negotiated collective agreement with the Guild as the representative of its employees and that this agreement has been twice renewed. It is, however, now settled that in the absence of a finding that the unfair labor practices actually engaged in by an employer have been so persistent and varied as to justify the apprehension of continued similar and varied efforts in the future to interfere with the employees’ right of self-organization and collective bargaining, the entry of a blanket order to cease and desist from all violations of the act is not justified. National Labor Relations Board v. Express Publishing Co., 61 S.Ct. 693, 85 L.Ed.-.
In the present case the Board made no such finding nor was there evidence upon which such a finding could have been made. Accordingly we conclude that the Board erred in including in its order the blanket provisions of paragraph 1 (b). That paragraph will therefore be stricken out. Likewise the portion of paragraph 2 (b) which directs the Company to reimburse public work relief agencies lor monies paid Miss Fahy for work performed by her for them must be stricken out. Republic Steel Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 311 U. S. 7, 61 S.Ct. 77, 85 L.Ed. — . Finally, the provision of the Board’s order for the posting of notice will be amended to conform to the Board’s present practice.
The order of the National Labor Relations Board will be modified to the extent indicated in this opinion. A decree enforcing it as so modified will be entered.