NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

122 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RF.TATIONS BOARD
tion of a labor organization and the refusal of an employer to bargain with that
organization upon request cannot constitute a complete defense to an allegation
under section 8 (2) of the act.
Upon the basis of the support and assistance rendered the council in solicitation
for its membership drive, and upon the basis of indirect aid afforded the
council by the means of disparaging and discrediting the Textile Workers Organizing
Committee in order to weaken it as an effective rival, we find that the
respondent has dominated and interfered with the formation and administration
of the council and has contributed support to it, within the meaning of section
8 (2) of the act.
In another case
'
8° the respondent's proscribed conduct consisted only
of a single activity which the Board found to result in its domination
of, and interference with, a labor organization. During a period
when a genuine union affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor was in the process of organizing and while certain employees
were discussing the formation of an independent union, the respondent's
president caused a poster to be placed on about 20 of the respondent's
bulletin boards and caused certain pamphlets to be made
available to the employees. Both the posters and the pamphlets were
reprints of an article appearing in Factory Management and Maintenance
magazine, and were identical except for a deletion from the
posters of some particularly hostile statements directed at "outsiders."
Both media were entitled, "employees can form factory unions" and
contained a model constitution for a "factory union." They were
replete with antiunion statements. When the association was organized,
a constitution similar to the one contained in the posters and
pamphlets, which had appeared 5 days earlier, was presented and
subsequently adopted.
In discussing the relation of the respondent's activities to the association,
the Board said :
It is evident from what hass been related that the respondent, after hearing
of the organization activities of the Federal Local, and at a time when the
organizational activities of the Federal Local was at its height, suggested and
fostered the formation of the association. The posters and pamphlets -posted
and distributed by the respondent could have had no other effect. The timing
of the formation of the association and the large number of membership applications
procured at its very first meeting must be attributed to the stimulus
furnished by the respondent.
The posters and pamphlets not only impressed the employees with the fact
that they could form a factory union, but also indicated quite definitely that
the respondent favored he formation of such a union and looked with disfavor
upon any outside organization. To publish, under the existing circumstances,
among its employees a spirited argument in favor of an inside union
was such interference, restraint, coercion, and support as the act declares unlawful.
The association, formed and administered with, such encouragement
and support from the respondent, became an organization of the employer's
choice.
The utilization of employer-controlled organizations and public
officials, in connection with other devices, in order to secure control
over a labor organization has been of significance in several cases
before the Board. This technique in conjunction with the threat of
8° Matter of Simplex Wire and Cable Company and Wire it Cable Workers Federal Local
Union 21020, Affiliated with the A. F. of L. Matter of Simplex Wire and Cable Campania
and Wire Cable 1Vorkers Federal Local Union 21020, Affiliated with the American Federation
of Labor: Matter of Simplex Wire & Cable Co. and Simplex Employees Association,
6 N. L. It. B. 251.