TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT - National Labor Relations Board

72 Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the National Labor Relations Board
that the voters are ineligible, and have failed to object to the agent's
announcement that the ballots would be destroyed 79
(2) Interference With Election
An election will be set aside if it was accompanied by conduct
which, in the Board's view, created an atmosphete of confusion or fear
of reprisals and thus interfered with the employees' free and untrammeled
choice of a representative guaranteed by the act 8° In determining
whether specific conduct amounted to such interference, the
Board does not attempt to assess its actual effect on the employees but
concerns itself with whether it is reasonable to conclude that the conduct
tended to prevent a free expression of the employees' choice
An election will be set aside because of pi ejudicial conduct whethei
or not the conduct is attributable to one of the parties The determinative
factor is that conduct has °cell' red which cleated a geneial
atmosphere in which a free choice of a bargaining repiesentative was
impossible al
(a) Preelection speeches—the 24-hour rule
In order to insure an atmospheie conducive to a flee election, the
Board has prohibited participating parties from making preelection
speeches on company time and propel ty to massed assemblies of emrloyees
within 24 hours before the time scheduled for an election
Violation of this rule, known as the Peerless rule,82 results m the election
being set aside
In one case, a Christmas party held in one of the employer's
lestaurants on the day before the election was deemed not violative of
the Peerless rule 84, The date of the party had been selected before
the preelection conference established the date for the election, the
employees attended voluntarily and on their own time, and the only
supervisor in attendance, who was the supervisor for that particulai
restaurant, made no speech nor led any discussion concerning the election
or the union In reaching its decision in this case, the Board
also considered again the effect of the employer's speeches to employees
during the time mail balloting was in progress 84 It held that the
" Interstate Hoak', lac, 131 NLRB No 153
In order to prevent confusion and turmoil at the time of the election, the Board has
specificslly prohibited electioneering speeches on company time during the 24 hour period
just before the election, Pew lose Plywood Co, 107 NLRB 427 (195.3), as well as
electioneering near the polling place during the election
81 See James Lew; and Sons Co, 130 NLRB 290, former Chairman Leedom and Member
Rodgers dissenting, where a majority of the Board set aside an election because the statements
and conduct by responsible groups and indiiduals in the community reasonably
conveyed the view to the employees that in the event of unionisation the employer could
shut down its plant and other employers would not locate in the community
= Peerless Plymood Co, above, footnote 80
as Interstate Hosts, lac, above
8' See Oregon Washington Telephone Co, 123 NLRB 339 (1959)