TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT - National Labor Relations Board

Representation Cases 37
the employer's stores to the effect that the employer had a contract
with the union Before the picketing began, the union informed the
employer that members of other uruons believed that the employer
had a union contract, that the union felt obligated to advertise the
fact that the employer did not have a union contract, but that the
union was not asking for a contract or claiming to represent the
employees "in any shape, way or form" The majority pointed out
that "m any inquiry into the effectiveness of a disclaimer it is the
Union's contemporaneous and subsequent conduct which ought to
receive particular attention," and that in this case the union "once
having disclaimed in unmistakable terms, engaged in no action inconsistent
therewith," the picketing being "accounted for by uncontradicted
testimony which show[e,d] that it had no recognitional
object"
3 Qualification of Representative
Section 9(c) (1) provides that employees may be represented "by
any employee or group of employees or anr.individual or labor
oi gam ation "
It is the Boai d's policy to clued an election and issue a cm tification
unless the proposed bargaining iepresentative fails to qualify as a
bona fide representative of the employees In this connection, the
Board is not concerned with mteinal union matte's which do not
affect its capacity to act as a bargaining repiesentative 40 And it has
long held that two or more laboi organizations may act jointly in
epresenting employees in an appropriate unit 41
a Statutory Qualifications
The Board's power to certify a labor organization as bargammg
representative is limited by section 9(b) (3) which pi ohibits certification
of a union as the representative of a unit of guards if the union
'admits to membership, or is affiliated directly or indirectly with an
organization which admits to membership, employees other than
guards " 42
However, compliance with the requirements of the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 is not a condition precedent
to the filing of a representation petition by a labor organization 43
40 Ingo Lumber Co of California, 129 NLRB 79 See Twenty-fifth Annual Report
(1960), p 25
Florida Tile Industries, lac, 130 NLRB 897
as See Watohmanttora, lac, 128 NLRB 903, where employees who spent 16 to 90 percent
of their time performing guard duties for their employer's customers, and general maintenance
duties the rest of their time, were found to be guards within the meaning of this
section The contract bar and unit aspects of this case are discussed below at pp 41 and
54, respectively
a Thy° Lumber Co of California, 129 NLRB 79 See also The Wright Line, lac, 127
NLRB 849, and Twenty fifth Annual Report (1960), p 26