Campbell Steel Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 20, 1958

120 N.L.R.B. 168 (N.L.R.B. 1958)

168 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Campbell Steel Company and Campbell Steel Warehouse Com-
pany and United Steelworkers of America , AFL-CIO, Peti-
tioner. Case No. 39-RC-1192. March 20, 1958
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, ORDER, AND
DIRECTION OF SECOND ELECTION
Pursuant to a Board Decision and Direction of Election 1 an elec-
tion by secret ballot was conducted on November 14 and 15,
1957, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director
for the Sixteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board
among the employees in the unit therein found appropriate. Follow-
ing the election, the parties were furnished a tally of ballots which
showed that of approximately 252 eligible voters, 246 cast valid ballots
of which 87 were for the Petitioner and 159 were against the Peti-
tioner. There was one void ballot and no challenged ballots.
On November 21, 1957, the Petitioner filed timely objections to
conduct affecting the results of the election. The Regional Director
investigated the objections and on January 15, 1958, issued and duly
served upon the parties his report on objections in which he recom-
mended that objections 1 and 3 be sustained and that the election
be set aside and that a new election be ordered by the Board. The
Regional Director recommended that objection 9 be overruled, and
found it unnecessary to make any findings and recommendations
concerning the remaining objections. The Employer filed timely
exceptions to the Regional Director's recommendations that objections
1 and 3 be sustained. No other exceptions were filed by either party.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Fanning].
Upon the basis of the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
Objection 1: The employees polled in this election work at 2 sep-
arate plants, 1 in San Antonio, and 1 in Corpus Christi. The Re-
gional Director found that a majority of the employees at the
Employer's San Antonio and Corpus Christi plants were summoned
by management to individual interviews concerning this pending elec-
tion which were conducted in offices away from the employees' job
sites by high-ranking officials of the Employer. According to the
Employer, these interviews lasted from 3 to 5 minutes. At the San
Antonio plant, employees were interviewed by Vice President Sprague
in his private office. At the Corpus Christi plant, the interviews were
conducted by R. T. Campbell, the Employer's president, in the office
of Vice President Stocking. At each plant, the offices are enclosed
and separately located in a building housing other plant administra-
3 Not published.
120 NLRB No. 24.
CAMPBELL STEEL COMPANY 169
tive offices. In addition, employees were interviewed in the Corpus
Christi shipping office, a frame structure which is physically separated
from the plant proper by a distance of some 30 or 40 feet. On these
facts, the Regional Director concluded that the series of individual
interviews interfered with the employees' freedom of choice in the
election, and he therefore recommended that the election be set aside
and a new election be directed.
We agree with the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of
the Regional Director pertaining to objection 1. In its exceptions,
the Employer does not dispute the factual findings of the Regional
Director, but rather, seeks to excuse its conduct on the ground, in
substance, that there was no other practicable method by which its
views could be conveyed to the employees, and that such conduct was
necessary in order to counteract the Petitioner's preelection cam-
paigning. However, the Board has long held that the technique of
calling employees, individually or in small groups, into the Employer's
office and urging them to reject the union is in itself conduct which
interferes with the conditions necessary to a free choice by the, em-
ployees in the selection of a bargaining representative and warrants
setting aside the election .2 We deem it unnecessary to consider the
Employer's contention that the shipping office at the Corpus Christi
plant should not be considered the "locus of final authority" within
the meaning of the precedent cases. The widespread conduct shown
here of individual interviews in various administrative offices, apart
from the employees' normal workplaces, is sufficient to require setting
aside the election without regard to other matters.
Objection 3: The Regional Director also based its recommendation
for setting aside the election on the further ground that the Employer's
representatives used marked sample ballots in the course of the indi-
vidual interviews described above. There appears to be some ques-
tion as to whether the use of sample ballots in this case violated the
rule established by the Board in the Allied Electric Products, Inc.,
case. As we are setting aside the election for the reasons stated in
objection 1, we deem it unnecessary to resolve this apparent dispute.
As no exceptions were filed concerning the remaining objections,
we also adopt the Regional Director's recommendation that objection
9 be overruled, and we agree with him that the other objections need
not be considered on their merits.
[The Board set aside the election held on November 14 and 15,
1957.]
[Text of Direction of Second Election omitted from publication.]
' See for example, Red River Broadcasting Co, Inc., 115 NLRB 1212; Economic Ma-
chinery Company, 111 NLRB 947, 949.
3 109 NLRB 1270.