Frick Co.Download PDFNational Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsApr 4, 1969175 N.L.R.B. 233 (N.L.R.B. 1969) Copy Citation F RICK CO Frick Company and International Union , United Automobile , Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). Case 6-CA-3740 April 4, 1969 DECISION AND ORDER BY MEMBERS FANNING, BROWN, ANDZAGORiA On December 13, 1968, Trial Examiner George J. Bott issued his Decision in the above-entitled case, finding that the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the attached Trial Examiner's Decision. Thereafter, the Respondent filed exceptions to the Trial Examiner's Decision and a supporting brief, and the General Counsel filed a brief in support of the Trial Examiner's Decision as well as an answering brief. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner made at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed. The rulings are hereby affirmed. The Board has considered the Trial Examiner's Decision, the exceptions and briefs, and the entire record in this case, and hereby adopts the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Trial Examiner.' ORDER Pursuant to Section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board adopts as its Order the Recommended Order of the Trial Examiner, and hereby orders that the Respondent, Frick Company, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall take the action set forth in the Trial Examiner's Recommended Order. ' We agree with the Trial Examiner ' s rejection of the Respondent's contention that adding the number of strikers who had abandoned the strike to the number of replacements for strikers gave it an objective basis for doubting the Union's majority status In addition to the reasons cited by the Trial Examiner for his conclusion, it may also be noted that, even in the absence of unfair labor practices , there is no presumption that an employee's return to work during a strike demonstrates a rejection of the union as his bargaining representative See Palmer Asbestos and Rubber Corp , 160 NLRB 723, 730 Moreover , in such circumstances, sinkers are still part of the unit as long as they have not been replaced, and , even if replaced, they are part of the unit for the first 12 months of the strike See Pioneer Flour Mills, 174 NLRB No 174 Finally, in view of the Respondent ' s unfair labor practices , it is apparent that replacements who were hired after July 9, 1965, replaced unfair labor practice strikers, and are, therefore , not includable in the unit if the strikers whom they replaced have not been offered reinstatement after the strike was ended. TRIAL EXAMINER'S DECISION STATEMENT OF THE CASE 233 GEORGE J. BOTT, Trial Examiner: This proceeding, with all parties represented, was heard on October 8, 1968, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on the complaint of the General Counsel issued on September 11, 1968,' and the answer of Frick Company, herein called Respondent or Company The issue involved is whether Respondent improperly withdrew recognition from the Union in violation of Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, herein called the Act. Subsequent to the hearing, all parties filed briefs which I have considered. Upon the entire record in the case,' and from my observation of the witnesses, I make the following: FINDINGS OF FACT 1 THE RESPONDENT'S BUSINESS Respondent is a Pennsylvania corporation with a plant in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, which is the only plant involved herein, where it is engaged in the manufacturing of refrigeration equipment. During the 12-month period preceding the issuance of the complaint, the Respondent shipped to points outside the State of Pennsylvania from its Waynesboro plant, goods valued in excess of $50,000. I find that Respondent is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 11 THE LABOR ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Union is a labor organization within the meaning of the Act. III THE ALLEGED UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES A. Basic Findings of Fact On April I, 1965, after a brief strike, Respondent entered into a written agreement with the Union recognizing it as the exclusive bargaining agent for Respondent's approximately 525 production and maintenance employees for a period of l year. Contract negotiations began on April 5 and continued through May 14, 1965. On May 17, an impasse in bargaining having been reached, the Union struck to enforce its contract demands. All but four of the unit employees left work during the strike, but thereafter some employees returned to work each week. There were 12 bargaining sessions before the strike, and a few shortly thereafter called by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. A lapse in bargaining then occurred while the strike continued until the Union asked for additional meetings in February 1966. On November 16, 1965, while the strike was still current, the General Counsel issued a complaint against Respondent in Case 6-CA-3379, alleging violations of Section 8(a)(1), (3), and (5) of the Act. After a hearing, a Trial Examiner's Decision, and exceptions, the Board, on November 16, 1966, adopted the findings of the Trial 'The charge on which the complaint is based was filed by the Union on September 22, 1966 'General Counsel ' s unopposed motion to correct the transcnpt in certain particulars is hereby granted 175 NLRB No. 39 234 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Examiner and found, with respect to the allegation of refusal to bargain under Section 8(a)(5) of the Act, that the parties had bargained to an impasse and Respondent had not refused to bargain with the Union as alleged The Board also found, however, that Respondent violated Section 8(a)(3) by removing strikers from its payroll because they had been absent for 7 days under Respondent's rule, and by denying them earned vacation pay by treating strike absence as unexcused absence. The Board also found that Respondent violated Section 8(a)(I) of the Act during the strike by threatening employees with forfeiture of vacation benefits if they continued striking and did not return to work by a certain time, by making other illegal threats to them to cause their return to work, and by engaging in surveillance. The Board, in agreement with the Trial Examiner, found that "Respondent by its deliberate unlawful course of conduct beginning on July 9, soon after the last negotiation session on July 7, aggravated its differences with the Union and created new and serious impediments to the settlement of the strike with the results that the strike, economic in origin, was prolonged and consequently converted into an unfair labor practice strike as of July 9."' On January 27, 1966, while the strike was still on, Respondent wrote the Union and advised it that it was terminating the recognition agreement as of April 1, 1966 Despite this notification, after the Union wrote the Company on February 18, 1966, asking for a meeting to "explore the possibility of a settlement of our differences," and after additional correspondence, the parties met on March 25, 1966, for contract negotiations. During the March 25, 1966, meeting there was discussion of a settlement of the strike and of the pending unfair labor practice charges, the Union taking the position that the strike was an unfair labor practice strike, and the Company maintaining that it had bargained in good faith The Company also asked the Union to submit its contract demands and proposals in writing so that the Company could submit counterproposals Attorney Rice, for the Company, asked the Union what its wage demand was, and the Union countered by inquiring about a pension plan Rice asked how much the Union thought should be set aside for a pension plan, and the Union replied that the parties should first discuss its provisions, not its cost At the end of the meeting, Rice indicated that the Company had "money available" to improve certain of its offers. The parties agreed to meet again on March 31, 1966 At the March 31, 1966, meeting, the Company offered the Union a 12-cent-per-hour across-the-board wage increase and an additional 5-cent-per-hour contribution to a pension fund. The company negotiator advised that the Company wished to make the increase effective immediately because another employer in the area had granted a similar increase, but he also stated that the offer did not preclude further negotiations on wage or pension increases He said he would offer the Union "our pension plan" in "the near future." The negotiator for the Union replied that the Union wished more time to consider the wage and pension offer. At the conclusion of the meeting the Union tendered to the Respondent its written contract proposals. The parties agreed to meet again on April 4, 1966. At the beginning of the April 4 meeting, Bothe, who was the Union's chief negotiator, asked whether the 'Fuck Company , 161 NLRB 1089, 1111, enfd as modified N L R B v Fnck Company , 397 F 2d 956 (C A 3) Company had read the Union's proposals, and Rice replied that he had, but said he understood that the main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the employer's wage offer Bothe said that it was not being rejected and was still under consideration The Company stated that it was going to put the wage increase into effect immediately because of the increase recently given by another employer.' Rice also stated that "the Company will go over the entire contract and advise" the Union of its position. At the end of the meeting he repeated that "We will be in touch with you in the near future as to our next meeting to discuss the contract." The fourth and last meeting of the parties took place on April 28. Previous to this session, the Union had terminated the strike on April 6, and the striking employees were being reinstated in groups according to the Company's production scheduling Rice opened the April 28 meeting by asking the Union "to explain the areas" of its proposed contract, and he promised to "prepare a counterproposal when we get more information from you " The parties discussed some of the Union's contract proposals The grievance procedure, for example, was discussed and Respondent made some suggested changes in it. Notes of the meeting in evidence taken by company representatives show no real or precise agreement on any major clauses, and it is clear that there was no agreement on wages or pensions Rice asked the Union for its position on these money items, and he was told only that, "We are not frozen " During the meeting Rice stated that "there was nothing more that they could do today" for "the Company wanted to get more information, particularly actuarial advice." He added that the pension was a "major area of negotiations and the amount of the pension will have an effect on the rest of the articles of the contract " Rice concluded by stating that the Company would be in touch with the Union, probably in the middle of the following month when it had received information from its actuaries On May 25, 1966, the Union wrote the Company and, after noting that the Company had indicated in the last meeting that it intended to consult an actuary regarding the pension plan, asked if the Company had the information and was ready for a meeting On June 1, 1966, the Respondent's attorney replied to the Union's inquiry about a meeting. Among other things, Rice noted that the Trial Examiner in the earlier case had issued his decision finding that the Company had not bargained in bad faith. He stated that "in view of the pending unfair labor practice charge as filed by your Union and the present status of the pending litigation, it is now uncertain as to whether or not your Union represents a majority We have more than 450 working in the Plant and over 400 were working when the strike was called off by the Union. The Company does not now believe that your Union represents a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit." In view of those facts, Rice concluded, he saw "nothing to be gained by further meetings at this time " The Union protested the Company's position in a letter to it on July 1, but, on July 11, the Company replied and, repeating its earlier position in more detail emphasizing that it was "firmly convinced that the UAW does not represent the majority," declined to meet with the Union. The Company did put the wage increase into effect and there was an allegation about it in the complaint, but this was dropped by amendment at the hearing in this case FRICK CO. 235 During the strike which began on May 17, 1965, and lasted until April 6, 1966, many strikers returned to work, and the Company also hired a substantial number of replacements. It appears from the uncontradicted testimony of Hoff, Respondent's Director of Industrial Relations, that when the March 25 bargaining meeting took place, 202 strikers had returned to work and, in addition, there were 239 replacements for strikers working in the plant, making a total of 441 unit employees. By April 4, the figure for strikers returned remained at 202, and there were now 236 replacements. By June 1, when Respondent withdrew recognition from the Union, there were 202 strikers employed who had returned before the end of the strike and 101 who had been reinstated after the strike ended. In addition, there were approximately 225 new employees working. The above statistics are unquestioned, but there is a dispute about the time in relation to Respondent's unfair labor practices during the strike when most of the strikers came back to work. According to the Board's decision in the first case, Respondent committed its first unfair labor practice which came to the attention of the strikers on July 9, when Respondent advised them about forfeiture of vacation pay. Hoff testified that of the 202 strikers who returned 75 percent of them had returned before July 1. However, Craig, International Union representative who was in charge of the strike, testified that in his judgment only about 40 of the 202 returnees returned before the Company sent out its July 8 letter regarding vacations. I credit Craig. Hoff admitted that he was guessing and had not checked company records. Craig was not only more certain, but he was in a better position to know and remember, for he was in charge of the strike and the picketing, and was also responsible for strike benefit disbursements. I find that the great majority of strikers who returned to work during the strike did so after the middle of July 1965. B. Analysis, Additional Findings, and Conclusions Respondent's position essentially is that it met and negotiated with the Union many times prior to June 1, 1966, and having reached an impasse withdrew recognition from and refused to meet further with the Union, because it had a good-faith doubt that the Union did not represent a majority of its employees' 1. Impasse In the earlier case against Respondent, the Trial Examiner found that the parties had arrived at an impasse on wages by May 14, 1965, when Respondent announced a unilateral wage increase of 12 cents per hour, and that this unilateral act did not occur in a context of a refusal to bargain in violation of the Act The Trial Examiner also found, of course, that Respondent's whole course of conduct in the bargaining area was not in bad faith. The Union and the General Counsel concede, therefore, that a bargaining impasse existed between the Union and the Company up to February 18, 1966, when the Union wrote Respondent and asked for a meeting to explore the possibility of a settlement of their differences. The Union was still the bargaining representative, despite the existence of an impasse, and the passage of a substantial period of time since the last meeting would have broken 'The complaint was amended at the hearing by striking "April I," as the date of alleged refusal, and substituting "June I " the impasse in any case." In any event, the Union and the Company did meet for collective bargaining on March 25, 1966, and in this first meeting the Respondent indicated that it had more money available for economic items than it had before. This, it seems to me, was a substantial change in the position of one of the parties, which would suggest a real possibility of breaking the previous deadlock.' In the second meeting on March 31, the Union presented written contract proposals as requested by the Company in the previous meeting. Unless the Respondent had made this suggestion in bad faith, which no one contends, it was still considering the possibility of position shifts on both sides Moreover, in line with its earlier suggestion in the economic field, at this meeting the Company proposed an additional contribution of 5 cents per hour to the pension fund. The third meeting on April 4, rather than suggesting an impasse, evidences some open mindedness on both sides The Union repeated that its contract proposals were not final or unchangeable, and the Company indicated that it was not yet prepared to make a complete counterproposal, and promised to get in touch with the Union for another meeting. When the April 28 meeting was concluded, some agreement in some areas had been reached, and the Company had agreed to submit additional counterproposals and to supply information to the Union as to what benefits a 10-cent-an-hour contribution to the pension fund would buy. This information would be available in the next meeting. The parties shook hands and agreed to meet again. Although the economic package, that is to say, wages and pensions, was always the principal issue dividing the parties, and although in the last series of meetings described above the Union had neither accepted or rejected the Company's wage and pension proposals, I am convinced on the basis of the facts set forth that the situation existing in bargaining on April 28 was not such as to justify the Employer's asserted belief that progress was hopeless and that further discussions were a waste of time.' Not only had the Company raised its pension contribution another 5 cents over its earlier offers, it had promised to provide information obtained from its actuaries as to the benefits that 10 cents an hour per employee would provide. The records in this case and the earlier one show that pensions were an important issue to the Union, and so the change of position in this area strongly indicates that the parties not only were not frozen, but did not believe or act like they were. Finally in regard to impasse, I am persuaded, as the General Counsel and the Union contend, that Respondent's defense in this area, set up for the first time in its answer , is an afterthought When the Company did not get in touch with the Union with actuarial information as promised, the Union wrote the Company and asked about it. Respondent replied and noted that it had not yet obtained the information needed. It also questioned the Union's majority and refused to meet When the Union protested the Company's refusal, Respondent reiterated its position in another letter to the Union, but in neither letter breaking off bargaining did Respondent suggest that 'Central Metallic Casket Co 91 NLRB 572 'In the first case, the Trial Examiner found that during bargaining, Respondent "remained unpersuaded that it should grant more than its original offer of 12 cents an hour on wages and 5 cents an hour on pensions " 'This was the testimony of Hoff and Miller for the Company 236 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD further talks would be useless because of an impasse? I find that none existed." In reaching this conclusion I have not ignored the testimony of Respondent's negotiators that they believed they had reached an impasse Hoff testified that bargaining was broken off and no further meetings held for three reasons. He listed impasse, doubt of the Union's majority and the expiration of the original recognition agreement The last is irrelevant, of course, for the Union's right to recognition flows from the Act, not from employer consent Hoffs assessment of the situation as hopeless from a bargaining point of view, even if objectively arrived at, is contrary to the facts which I have found and also inconsistent with his own notes on bargaining on which many of these findings are based. Similarly, I have also considered whatever difficulty in bargaining may have resulted from the abrasive, personal remarks of one of the Union's negotiators, uttered in the last meeting Here again, these comments, frustrating as they may have been, do not outweigh the factors which I have found indicate openmindedness and some progress in negotiations 2 The Union's majority and the Company's doubt of it The Union was recognized by the Company on April 1, 1965, as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees in an appropriate production and maintenance unit. The Union's majority status in an appropriate unit as of April 1, 1965, was admitted by the Respondent and found by the Board in the earlier case '° One of the reasons given by Hoff for withdrawing recognition from the Union was an asserted belief that the Union no longer represented a majority. According to Hoff, this belief was based on the makeup of the employee complement as of June 1, 1966 At that time, Respondent had 225 "new hires" or replacements for strikers on its payroll, and 202 old employees who had engaged in the strike of May 17, 1965, but who had crossed the picket line and returned to work In addition, the Company had recalled 101 striking employees after the strike was ended These figures made a total of 528 employees in the bargaining unit on June 1. Respondent, apparently conceding that a bargaining relationship rightfully established either by certification or recognition must be permitted to exist for a reasonable period to give it a chance to succeed, and that an employer may question a union's majority after a certification year only if he has reasonable grounds to support his asserted good faith belief that the union no longer represents a majority," points out that an employer may base his good-faith doubt about the status of the union upon mathematical calculations of returning strikers, replacements and employees still on strike.': Respondent develops its position by arguing that since "new hires" or replacements were not members of the Union, and the presumption is that the employees who abandoned the strike no longer supported the Union, 427 employees in a unit of 528 on June l could be considered as not favoring the Union Respondent concludes that these simple mathematical computations demonstrate that over 50 percent of Respondent's employees as of June 1, 1966, did not support the Union. `Cf American Ship Building Co v N L R B , 380 U S 300, 303, Dallas General Drivers Warehousemen and Helpers , Local Union No 745, 1 B T v NLRB,355F2d842,845(CADC) "161 NLRB 1089, 1102 Charging Party and General Counsel accept Respondent's statement of the law and some of its mathematics, but they add that the Board has also held that where the majority question is raised by an employer in a context of unremedied unfair labor practices, the question of whether the employer had reasonable grounds for believing that the union had lost its majority is irrelevant, for employee disaffection with the bargaining agent would be deemed attributable to such unfair labor practices." Aware of these principles, Respondent says that even if we accept Union Representative Craig's testimony that only 40 strikers went back to work before July 9, 1965, which was the day the strike was converted into an unfair labor practice strike by Respondent's actions in regard to vacations for strikers, nevertheless 40 plus the 239 replacements for strikers is still a majority of employees who did not support the Union on June 1, 1966, when recognition was withdrawn, regardless of the magnitude of the unfair labor practices committed by Respondent in the summer of 1965. Respondent's numbers, while not inaccurate on their face, need analysis Most, if not the large majority, of the strikers, as Craig testified credibly, came back to work after July 8, 1965 Respondent had 239 replacements by June 1, 1966, but there is no evidence, and it is extremely unlikely, that Respondent had 239 replacements on its payroll at any time in 1965 In the earlier case, the Trial Examiner found, and the Board and Court agreed, that after the strike began on May 17, 1965, Respondent committed an unfair labor practice by removing strikers from its payroll "as a quit effective May 24," another unfair labor practice in letters to employees on July 8 threatening them with loss of vacation pay if they did not return to work by July 14, and another by actually effecting a forfeiture in vacation pay in violation of Section 8(a)(3) of the Act because employees did not return to work. The Trial Examiner also found that these unfair labor practices continued into August 1965 in that Respondent's supervisors also engaged in coercive conduct during that period designed, as were Respondent's threats regarding vacation pay, to persuade employees to abandon the strike Some of Respondent's conduct during the strike, in the Trial Examiner's view, "constituted attempts to deal with the striking employees directly rather than through their Union, the majority representative." He concluded that Respondent "by its deliberate unlawful course of conduct beginning on July 9, soon after the last negotiation session on July 7, aggravated its differences with the Union and created new and serious impediments to the settlement of the strike with the results that the strike, economic in origin, was prolonged and consequently converted into an unfair labor practice strike on July 9 " Two things at least follow from this analysis of Respondent' s statistics and the findings of unfair labor practices in the original case One, there were not enough strikers who had returned to work or replacements on July 8 or 9 to support the belief that the Union had lost the support of a majority in the unit. Two, serious unfair "Celanese Corporation of America, 95 NLRB 664, 672, Kimbrough Trucking Co , 160 NLRB 954, 957-958, Universal Gear Corporation, 157 NLRB 1169, Palmer Asbestos & Rubber Corporation , 160 NLRB 723, 730 "Celanese Corporation of America, supra. Neuman Transit Co. Inc, 138 NLRB 659, Midwestern Instruments , Inc , 133 NLRB 1132 "Franks Bros Company v N L R B. 321 U S 702, 705, The Little Rock Downtowner, inc , 168 NLRB No 18, C & C Plywood Corporation and Veneer , Inc , 163 NLRB No 136 FRICK CO. 237 labor practices, such as threats regarding and actual deprivation of vacation benefits,' undercut the Union and impeded a settlement of the strike A corollary of this is that if the strike had been settled at an early date and not prolonged by Respondent's unfair labor practices, which were aimed at causing disaffection among the strikers and which still remained unremedied in June 1966, there may never have been 202 stnkers who abandoned the strike and returned to work or 239 replacements for strikers. In this connection it may be fairly inferred that defections and replacements were directly related to the serious character of Respondent's unfair labor practices Respondent's mathematics, therefore, is contaminated by Respondent's unfair labor practices, and cannot serve as the kind of objective consideration needed15 to support an asserted good-faith belief that a union has lost its majority. While I agree with Respondent, and no one suggests to the contrary, that the existence of any unfair labor practice should not automatically foreclose an employer from raising the majority question, I find on the basis of the considerations mentioned, including the findings in the earlier case, that the rule in Celanese and C & C Plywood Corporation applies here, and that since Respondent is attempting to question the Union's majority in a context of serious unremedied unfair labor practices, its raising of the issue is not in good faith. I conclude that by withdrawing recognition from the Union on June 1, 1966, and by refusing at all times thereafter to recognize and bargain with the Union as exclusive representative of employees in the appropriate unit, notwithstanding that Respondent did not have a good-faith doubt of the Union's majonty status, Respondent violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the Act. 16 embody such understanding in a signed agreement. Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the entire record in the case, I make the following CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1 The Respondent is engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act 2. The Union is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act. 3. All production and maintenance employees at the Respondent's Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, plant, including shop clerical employees, inspectors, leaders who are not supervisors as defined in the Act and factory and plant janitors, excluding timekeepers, farm machinery and saw mill parts retail sales and store employees, refrigerator engineer trainees, pattern makers and their apprentices, other office clerical employees (including office clerical employees of the production control department), technical employees (including employees of the engineering and drafting department), watchmen and guards, professional employees and supervisors as defined in the Act constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining within the meaning of the Act 4 At all times since March 30, 1965, and continuing to date, the Union has been the exclusive representative for the purpose of collective bargaining of all the employees in the aforesaid unit within the meaning of Section 9(a) of the Act 5. By refusing to bargain with the Union, as found above, on June 1, 1966, and thereafter, Respondent engaged in and is engaging in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the Act 6. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. IV THE EFFECT OF THE UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES UPON COMMERCE The activities of Respondent set forth in section III, above, which have been found to constitute unfair labor practices, occurring in connection with the operations of Respondent described in section I, above, have a close, intimate, and substantial relation to trade, traffic, and commerce among the several States and tend to lead to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow of commerce. V THE REMEDY It having been found that the Respondent engaged in unfair labor practices in violation of Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the Act, it will be recommended that Respondent cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action designed to effectuate the policies of the Act. Since it has been found that Respondent refused to bargain with the Union as the exclusive representative of the employees in the appropriate unit described herein, it will, therefore, be recommended that Respondent be ordered to bargain collectively, upon request, with the Union as the exclusive representative of the employees in the appropriate unit, and, if an understanding is reached, "N L R B v Great Dane Trailers, Inc, 338 U S 26, 32 "Laystrom Manufacturing Co, 151 NLRB 1482, 1484, enforcement RECOMMENDED ORDER Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and conclusions of law, and upon the entire record in the case, it is recommended that Respondent, its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall: 1. Cease and desist from: (a) Refusing to bargain with the Union as the exclusive representative of its employees in the appropriate unit found herein. (b) In any other like or related manner, interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of their rights to self-organization; to form, join, or assist any labor organization, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, to engage in concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, or to refrain from any and all such activities 2 Take the following affirmative action: (a) Bargain with the Union, upon request, as the exclusive representative of the employees in the appropriate unit found herein with respect to wages, hours, and other conditions of employment, and if an understanding is reached embody such understanding in a signed agreement. (b) Post at its plant in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, copies of the attached notice marked "Appendix."" denied 359 F 2d 799 (C A 7) "In the event that this Recommended Order is adopted by the Board the "Celanese Corporation of America, 95 NLRB 664, C & C Plywood words "a Decision and Order" shall be substituted for the words "the Corporation and Veneers, Inc, 163 NLRB No 136, The Little Rock Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner" in the notice In the further Downtowner, Inc, 168 NLRB No 18 event that the Board's Order be enforced by a decree of the United States 238 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Copies of said notice to be furnished by the Regional Director for Region 6 shall, after being duly signed by the Respondent, be posted immediately upon receipt thereof, in conspicuous places, and be maintained by it for a period of 60 consecutive days, including all places where notices to employees are customarily posted. Reasonable steps shall be taken by Respondent to insure that such notices are not altered, defaced, or covered by any other material. (c) Notify the said Regional Director, in writing, within 20 days from the receipt of this Decision, what steps Respondent has taken to comply herewith.1e Court of Appeals , the words "Pursuant to a Decree of the United States Court of Appeals , Enforcing an Order" shall be substitued for the words "Pursuant to a Decision and Order " "in the event that this Recommended Order be adopted by the Board, this provision shall be modified to read "Notify said Regional Director in writing, within 10 days from the date of this Order , what steps the Respondent has taken to comply herewith " APPENDIX NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES Pursuant to the Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner of the National Labor Relations Board and in order to effectuate the policies of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended , we hereby notify our employees that WE WILL NOT refuse to recognize and bargain collectively with International Union, United Automobile , Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in the following appropriate unit- All production and maintenance employees at our Waynesboro , Pennsylvania , plant, including shop clerical employees inspectors , leaders who are not supervisors as defined in the Act , and factory and plant janitors , excluding timekeepers , farm machinery and saw mill parts retail sales and store employees, refrigerator engineer trainees, pattern makers and their apprentices, other office clerical employees (including office clerical employees of the production control department), technical employees (including employees of the engineering and drafting department), watchmen and guards, professional employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce the employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization, to form, join or assist unions, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, to engage in concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, or to refrain from such activities, except to the extent that such right may be affected by an agreement requiring union membership as a condition of employment, as authorized in Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. WE WILL, upon request, bargain collectively with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), as the exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the appropriate unit as found above, and, if an understanding is reached, embody such understanding in a signed agreement. Dated By FRICK COMPANY (Employer) (Representative) (Title) This notice must remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material. If employees have any question concerning this notice or compliance with its provisions, they may communicate directly with the Board's Regional Office, 1536 Federal Building, 1000 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222, Telephone 412-644-2969 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation