Offenhauser Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 24, 1969

175 N.L.R.B. 34 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

34 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Offenhauser Company and Sheet Metal Workers'
International Association , AFL-CIO, Local Union
No. 54 , Petitioner . Case 23-RC-3172
March 24, 1969
DECISION AND CERTIFICATION OF
REPRESENTATIVE
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND ZAGORIA
Pursuant to a Stipulation for Certification upon
Consent Election approved on August 13, 1968, an
election by secret ballot was conducted on August
30, 1968, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for Region 23, among the
employees in the stipulated unit described below. At
the conclusion of the election, the parties were
furnished with a tally of ballots which showed that
of approximately 106 eligible voters, 102 cast valid
ballots, of which 52 were for, and 43 against, the
Petitioner, and 7 were challenged. Thereafter, the
Employer 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
directed a hearing to be held before a duly
designated Hearing Officer for the purpose of taking
evidence on the issues raised by all of the
Employer's objections. On December 16, the
Hearing Officer issued and duly served upon the
parties his Report on Objections, in which he
recommended that the Employer's objections be
overruled in their entirety. Thereafter, the Employer
filed timely exceptions to the Hearing Officer's
Report on Objections.
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 Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. 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
purposes 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 concerning
the representation of employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and Section
2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4 In accordance with the stipulation of the
parties, we find that the following employees of the
Employer constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees,
including production control employees and
truckdrivers, at the Employer's Houston, Texas,
facility, excluding all office clerical employees,
inspectors, draftsmen, professional engineers,
watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in
the Act.
5. The Board has considered the objections, the
Hearing Officer's Report, and the Employer's
exceptions, and with the additional reasoning set
forth below, hereby adopts the Hearing Officer's
findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
The Employer takes exception to, inter alia, the
Hearing Officer's finding that the objection based on
threats and coercion was without merit. As
originally filed, this objection alleged that threats
were made and acts of coercion were committed by
"the Union through its agents." No evidence of an
agency relationship, or of the Union's ratification or
adoption of the alleged threats was adduced at the
hearing. The Employer contends, nevertheless, that
an atmosphere of fear existed which might have
affected the results of the election. The evidence
does not support such a contention.
The unit included 106 eligible voters The
Employer produced only two competent witnesses to
an alleged threat. Employee Ennis Sims testified
that about a week before the election, employee
Jake Jackson said to him that, "If this union goes
through, you two old farts won't be here tonight at
7:00." Sims related this message to the other
employee to whom Jackson had reference We agree
with the Hearing Officer that the statement was
ambiguous and vague, and does not warrant setting
the election aside. No explanation was given as to
how an event to occur a week hence, the election,
could affect the presence of two employees on the
job that evening at 7. No suggestion is offered as to
how the statement might have affected the votes of
the employees mentioned; neither was it shown how
this isolated statement might have created a general
atmosphere of fear. Employee John Grizzffi testified
that employee Jackson told him that if the Union
came in, and if it did not get everything it wanted, it
could call a strike, and that Jackson could enforce a
strike by standing at the plant door with a .22
pistol. Not only was this statement related to a
hypothetical post-election situation, but also, as the
Hearing Officer noted, Jackson was an old
acquaintance of Grizzffi. We therefore agree with
the Hearing Officer that this statement could not
have created a general atmosphere of fear and
reprisal in the election.
The balance of the evidence is either hearsay, as
to the truth of the alleged threats, since it was not
made in the presence of those who testified, or
irrelevant, as being related to post-election events.
Nor does this evidence satisfy us that there was any
general atmosphere of fear which invalidated the
election. Accordingly, we shall adopt the Hearing
Officer's recommendation that this objection be
175 NLRB No. 16
OFFENHAUSER CO. 35
overruled.
As we have overruled the objections, and as the
Petitioner has secured a majority of the valid votes
cast, we shall certify the Petitioner as the exclusive
representative of the employees in the appropriate
unit.
CERTIFICATION OF REPRESENTATIVE
It is hereby certified that Sheet Metal Workers'
International Association , AFL-CIO, Local Union
No. 54, has been designated and selected by a
majority of the employees of the Employer in the
unit found appropriate herein as their representative
for the purposes of collective bargaining and that,
pursuant to Section 9(a) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, the said labor
organization is the exclusive representative of all
such employees for purposes of collective bargaining
with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of
employment, and other terms and conditions of
employment.