Austill Waxed Paper Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 29, 1968

169 N.L.R.B. 1109 (N.L.R.B. 1968)

AUSTILL WAXED PAPER CO. 1109
Austill Waxed Paper Company and Jacksonville
Printing Pressmen and Assistants ' Union, Local 97,
subordinate to International Printing Pressmen
and Assistants ' Union of North America,
AFL-CIO. Case 12-RC-2842
February 29, 1968
DECISION, ORDER AND DIRECTION OF
SECOND ELECTION
I'y MEMBERS JENKINS, ZAGORIA, AND BROWN
Pursuant to a Stipulation for Certification Upon
Consent Election, an election by secret ballot was
conducted on August 18, 1967, under the direction
and supervision of the Regional Director for Region
12 among the employees in the appropriate unit. At
the conclusion of the balloting, the parties were
furnished with a tally of ballots' which showed that
of approximately 19 eligible voters, 17 ballots were
cast, of which 5 were for, and 7 against, the Peti-
tioner, and 5 ballots were challenged. The chal-
lenges were sufficient in number to affect the results
of the election. Thereafter, the Petitioner and Em-
ployer filed timely objections to conduct affecting
the results of the election.
In accordance with the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, the Regional
Director conducted an investigation and, on
November 8, 1967, duly served upon the parties his
report on challenged ballots and objections to elec-
tion and recommendations to the Board, in which
he recommended that the challenge to the ballot of
John Thompson be sustained; that the challenges to
the ballots of Harold Stovall and Donald Gromer
be overruled and that their ballots be opened and
counted; that, in the event to ballots of Stovall and
Gromer are not determinative of the election, then
a hearing be held on the challenge to the ballot of
Ruth Halgren; and that, if the ballot of Paul Toler
could still be determinative of the election, the chal-
lenge to his ballot be resolved by a Trial Examiner
in the hearing on the complaint in Case
12-CA-3900. The Regional Director further
recommended that the Employer's objections be
overruled in their entirety and that Petitioner's ob-
jections numbered 1, 3, 4, and 5 be overruled, and
that if, upon the sustaining of Thompson's ballot
and the opening and counting of the ballots of
Stovall and Gromer, the remaining two challenges
are no longer determinative and the Petitioner shall
not thereby have secured a majority, Petitioner's
Objection 2 be sustained, the election of August 18,
1967, be set aside, and a second election directed.
Thereafter, the Employer and Petitioner filed ex-
ceptions to the Regional Director's report on objec-
tions and challenges.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its
powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the pur-
poses of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming
to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of the employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The parties stipulated, and we find, that all
production and maintenance employees, including
engraving employees, employed by the Employer
at Jacksonville, Florida, excluding office clericals,
salesmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9(b) of the Act.
5. The Board has considered the Regional
Director's Report and the entire record in the case,
including the exceptions, and hereby adopts the Re-
gional Director's findings and recommendations to
the extent consistent herewith.
Under the particular facts of this case, we do not
agree with the Regional Director's conclusion that
Employer's Objection 2, which raises the issue of
the ballot box being left unsealed and unattended
for from 2 to 5 minutes, should be overruled. This
objection, which goes to the very heart of the con-
duct of an election-maintaining the integrity of the
ballot box -is not, in our opinion, the proper sub-
ject for litigation on and ad hoc basis. We do not be-
lieve that we should speculate on whether
something did or did not occur while the ballot box
was left wholly unattended.2 The Board, through its
entire history, has gone to great lengths to establish
and maintain the highest standards possible to avoid
any taint of the balloting process; and where a situa-
tion exists, which, from its very nature, casts a
doubt or cloud over the integrity of the ballot box it-
self, the practice has been, without hesitation, to set
aside the election.3
It is our belief that the leaving of the ballot box
unsealed and unattended for possibly as much as 5
i The union representative refused to permit his observer to sign the
certification on conduct of election and to sign the tally of ballots or to ac-
cept copies of either of these documents Copies of these documents were
sent by certified mail to the Union
2 The ballot box became unattended when an altercation which
developed dung the voting period outside the polling place drew the at-
tending officials away from it
3 New York Telephone Co, 109 NLRB 788, 790; Tidelands Marine
Services, Inc., 116 NLRB 1222, 1223
169 NLRB No. 169
1110 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
minutes is a condition that relates directly to the in-
tegrity of the ballot box. It is the Board 's responsi-
bility to certify to the validity of its own balloting
procedures , and, if it cannot , as here , we believe
that in the interest of maintaining our high stan-
dards, there is no alternative but to set the election
aside and direct a second election.4
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the election conducted
herein on August 18, 1967, be, and it hereby is, set
aside.
[Direction of Election5 omitted from publica-
tion.]
4 As we are directing a second election, we deem it unnecessary to pass
upon the other objections filed by both the Employer and Petitioner.
S An election eligibility list , containing the names and addresses of all
the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional
Director for Region 12 within 7 days after the date of issuance of the
Notice of Second Election by the Regional Director . The Regional
Director shall make the list available to all parties to the election. No ex-
tension of time to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director ex-
cept in extraordinary circumstances . Failure to comply with this require-
ment shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper ob-
jections are filed. Excelsior Underwear Inc., 156 NLRB 1236.