The Cleveland Trencher Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 20, 1961

130 N.L.R.B. 600 (N.L.R.B. 1961)

600 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
which I find will effectuate the purposes of the Act. Because the circumstances of
this case do not warrant a broad order and because I believe that the decision of
the Supreme Court in Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, et al. v.
N.L.R.B. (Ohio Consolidated Tele. Co.), 362 U.S. 479 16 restrains the Board from the
use of such orders except under the most extraordinary conditions, my recommenda-
tion is confined to picketing in violation of Section 8(b) (7) (C) against the employer
herein and does not include "any other employer." Since there is no evidence that
the picketing by Respondent had for its purpose the forcing or requiring of the em-
ployees of Blinne to accept or select the Respondent as their collective-bargaining
agent picketing for such purpose is not restrained. (The stipulated facts establish
that all of the employees of Blinne at the picketed premises had selected Respondent
as their bargaining representative so such picketing would have been aimless.)
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings and conclusions and upon the entire record
herein, I make the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Charles A. Blinne, d/b/a C. A. Blinne Construction Company is an employer
engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
2. Respondent is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the
Act.
3. By picketing Blinne from February 8 until and including March 11, 1960, with
an object of forcing and requiring Blinne to recognize and bargain collectively with
Respondent, nothwithstanding Respondent was not then certified as the representative
of Blinne's employees, without a petition being filed under Section 9(c) of the Act,
Respondent engaged in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section
8(b) (7) (C) of the Act.
4. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices within the mean-
ing of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication.]
19 The Sixth Court of Appeals had already stricken the words "in any other manner"
from the Board's order so the Board's powers presumably are now recognized to have
appropriate limitations.
The Cleveland Trencher Company and District 54-Interna-
tional Association of Machinists , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases
Nos. 8-RC-3979 and 8-RM-253. February 20, 1961
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF
SECOND ELECTION
Pursuant to a stipulation for certification upon consent election,
an election by secret ballot was conducted on September 1, 1960, under
the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Eighth
Region, among the employees in the agreed unit. Upon the conclu-
sion of the balloting the parties were furnished with a tally of ballots
which showed that, of approximately 108 eligible voters, 103 cast
valid ballots, of which 53 were for, and 50 were against, the Petitioner.
Thereafter, the Employer filed timely objections to conduct affecting
the results of the election.
After an investigation, the Regional Director issued his report on
objections, in which he recommended that the objections be overruled
and the results certified. The Employer filed timely exceptions to the
Regional Director's report.
130 NLRB No. 59.
THE CLEVELAND TRENCHER COMPANY 601
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The following employees, as stipulated by the parties, 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 at the Employer's
Euclid, Ohio, plant, including inspectors, dispatchers, and shipping,
receiving, and stores department employees, but excluding all office
clerical employees, experimental department employees, professional
employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act.
5. The Board has considered the Employer's objections, the Re-
gional Director's report, and the Employer's exceptions thereto, and,
upon the entire record in this case, makes the following findings :
The objections allege that the Petitioner on the evening before the
election distributed a leaflet to the employees in which it made ma-
terial and deliberate misstatements of fact as to the benefits it had
obtained for the employees of four other employers in the area :
Barth Corporation, Precision Die Casting Company, Efficient Tool
and Die Company, and Accurate Die Casting Company, herein re-
ferred to as Barth, Precision, Efficient, and Accurate, respectively.
The Regional Director found that the leaflet contained a number of
inaccuracies and misrepresentations, some of which were brought to
the employees' attention in a letter circulated by the Employer on the
next morning. He concluded that those misrepresentations which
were not brought to the employees' attention in the Employer's letter
of rebuttal were not of sufficient gravity to warrant setting the election
aside, because they involved few of the approximately 38 representa-
tions made and they related to fringe items, i.e., automatic increases
to equalize pay within classifications, cost-of-living increases, and
sick and accident benefits.
The Employer excepted to the Regional Director's conclusion on the
grounds that : (1) the misstatements in question were material misrep-
resentations, (2) they had an impact on the election results, (3) they
were matters peculiarly within the Petitioner's knowledge, and (4)
they were made so close to the election that they could not be ade-
quately rebutted or neutralized. We find merit in the exceptions.
602 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The misstatements in question are as follows :
(1) The Petitioner's leaflet stated :
At "Precision" not only do [employees] have all the [previously
enumerated benefits obtained at Barth] but "also a cost-of-living
clause was incorporated into the contract together with an auto-
matic increase in wages of 15¢-100-100 for a three (3) year
contract which has provided an additional 8¢ per hour wage
increase for every employee."
The 8-cent figure in the above paragraph was admittedly in error.
The Employer contended that it led employees to believe that an 8-cent
cost-of-living increase was obtained. The Petitioner maintained that
it was a typographical error and that it should have read 40 cents,
which would indicate a 5-cent cost-of-living increase. The Regional
Director found that the cost-of-living increase was actually 5 cents.
The contract provided for an increase of 1 cent for every 0.5 advance
in the cost-of-living index. The Regional Director did not credit the
Petitioner's explanation of the 8-cent figure, but concluded that in
context it was so ambiguous as not to be misleading. Contrary to the
Regional Director, we believe that a reasonable construction of the
statement is that an additional 8 cents was obtained as a cost-of-living
increase.
Moreover, the leaflet implies that all the employees at Precision
received the aforementioned automatic increase. However, the con-
tract at Precision indicates that only labor grades 1 through 5 had the
stated increases , while labor grades 6 through 10 had 6 cents, 7 cents,
and 8 cents. Although the Regional Director found that the Peti-
tioner represented only the first 5 labor grades, and that another labor
organization represented the other 5 grades, the contract on its face
shows the Petitioner to be the representative of employees in all 10
grades.
(2) One of the 16 listed benefits claimed to have been obtained for
employees at Barth was "Increased sick and accident insurance from
$45 per week to $55 per week up to 26 weeks." This same benefit was
claimed to have been obtained for the employees at Precision. How-
ever, at Precision these benefits amounted to only $33 per week for
only 20 weeks. Contrary to the Regional Director we believe that this
was a material misrepresentation.
(3) The Petitioner further claimed in its leaflet :
At Efficient as at Accurate, it obtained "a built-in automatic
wage increase every four months to bring up the wages of the
lower-paid employees to the plant average for the occupation.
The contract at Efficient provides that employees paid below their job
rate schedule will receive automatic increases of 5 cents per hour
THE CLEVELAND TRENCHER COMPANY 603
every 4 months until they reach the established rate for their classi-
fication, and not the average rate as stated. The established rates as
set forth in the contract are considerably lower than the average rates.
At Accurate an addendum to the original contract provided that
employees in four classifications in the toolroom would receive auto-
matic 5-cent per hour increases every 6 months until they reached
the bottom of the merit range for their classifications. It is thus seen
that the Petitioner's claims were partially false.
Although the Petitioner stated in its leaflet that the claims of bene-
fits obtained could be proved by inspection of the signed contracts, if
anyone was interested, this does not in our opinion remove the state-
ments made from the special knowledge of the Petitioner in view of
the late hour of the distribution of the leaflets.
As a general rule, absent coercion or fraud, the Board will not
undertake to police or censor election propaganda. However, where
a party deliberately makes material misrepresentations of fact in
circumstances in which employees are unable to evaluate the asser-
tions for truth or falsity, the Board has held that the legitimate
bounds of campaign propaganda have been exceeded and has set
aside the election.' In the instant case, the Petitioner misrepresented
some of the benefits it had obtained in contracts for employees of four
other companies in the area. These misrepresentations involved eco-
nomic benefits of a fringe nature, which like basic wage rates, are
matters of vital concern to employees voting in the election. The
Petitioner distributed the leaflet containing these misstatements on
the evening before the election. Although the Employer pointed
out some of the inaccuracies in these claims in the letter which it
distributed the next morning, it did not learn the facts concerning the
misrepresentations specified above until after the election and could
not do so without ready access to the written contracts between the
Petitioner and the other companies. In these circumstances, as the
Petitioner was in an authoritative position to know the true facts
and the employees were unable to evaluate the misrepresentations
made herein, we conclude that the Petitioner interfered with the
employees' free choice. Accordingly, we shall set the election aside
and direct that a new one be held.
[The Board set aside the election held on September 1, 1960, among
the employees of The Cleveland Trencher Company in the unit here-
tofore found appropriate.]
[Text of Direction of Second Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBERS JENKINS and FANNING took no part in the consideration
of the above Decision, Order, and Direction of Second Election.
I The Calidyne Co., 117 NLRB 1026; and Kawneer Company, 119 NLRB 1460.