NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

VII. PRINCIPLtS tSTA13LISIIED 119
tion were distributed, and temporary officers were elected. Thereafter
employees who were active in the association, some of them at
the instigation of fheir foreman, openly solicited membership in the
association during working hours. Foremen further assisted by
urging the employees to join under threats of discharge. In contrast,
the leaders of Local No. 502, after considerable difficulty, were given
permission to solicit, on the condition that they notify the assistant
plant manager before entering any department. When they complied
with the condition, they found that their activities were effectively
curtailed by the surveillance of foremen.
On January 4, 1937, Local No. 502 presented a contract to Stackpole.
Stackpole asked for a month to consider the contract but
finally agreed to meet with Local No. 502 on January 11 to discuss it.
On January 9, the hastily organized association showed its membership
-cards to the respondent's vice president, who, being "convinced"
that it represented a majority, met the "contract committee" of the
association on January 10, and negotiated substantially all the terms
of a contract with it. When the leaders of Local No. 502 presented
themselves on January 11 for the prearranged conference, Stackpole
told them that he had already recognized the association as the representative
of the employees. Later that day the respondent signed
the agreement with the association.
On January 15 departmental representatives of the association
were elected in the plant during working hours. Thereafter,
monthly meetings of the association were held in the plant during
working hours. The respondent furnished stenographic services for
preparin,, minutes, and paid for printing the association's constitution
ancebylaws.
In February representatives of the association collected dues during
working hours and issued therefor receipts prepared in the offices
of the foremen. Stackpole offered to match the dues collected by the
association, but later retracted this offer. Foremen requested employees
to distribute association literature during working hours and such
employees who worked long hours were paid for "overtime" in addition
to their regular pay. The respondent also made its pay-roll lists
available to the association.
During this period the respondent distributed circulars to its
employees clearly indicating its antagonism to Local No. 502. It
also inserted a paid advertisement in a newspaper which attacked
that labor organization. During the last week in February the Daily
Press, a local newspaper in which the respondent's vice president was
the principal stockholder and a director, carried a news article and
two editorials on the respondent's labor problems and the removal of
one of its departments to another town. The editorials and news
articles, which consisted in part of interviews with the respondent's
officials, were disparaging to Local No. 502 and favorable to the
"loyal" employees. The association also prepared circulars at this
time assuring its members that they were the "loyal" employees
referred to by the respondent in the interviews. The respondent
ordered reprints of the . news article and the editorials prior to their
publication in the Daily News. After their publication, the respondent
mailed out the reprints, together with the association's circular to
all its employees.