NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

VII. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED 147
tions Board Rules and Regulations—Series 1, as amended. There is nothing
in either the Direction or the Rules and Regulations which would prevent him
from conducting such elections by means of affidavits. Furthermore, the elections
were conducted by this method only after the Companies had refused to
furnish the Regional Director with copies of their pay rolls of March 24, 1937.
In view of this refusal, it is with little grace that the Companies complain against
the use of affidavits.
The contention that the Association and the Independent Union were injured
by the use of affidavits is without merit. All parties to this proceeding were
given an equal opportunity to have watchers at the polls for the purpose of
preventing persons not eligible to vote from voting. Such watchers had the
privilege of challenging any person making out a false affidavit.
4. OBJECTIONS PERTAINING TO ELECTIONS
It has been the purpose of the Board to conduct elections under circumstances
which would reflect the free and independent choice of
the employees involved. Thus where objections have been filed to the
conduct of the balloting and it has been found that the election took
place under circumstances which precluded a• free choice of representatives
by the employees, the Board has set aside the election.
In Matter of Carrollton Metal Products Company,18 the Board
found that supervisory employees had engaged in threats and other
acts of intimidation during the week prior to the election. The
Board concluded that the employees "were not afforded an opportunity
to choose representatives, free from intimidation and coercion on
the part of the respondent, and that, therefore, the election * * *
is null, void, and of no effect." Similarly, the Board declared void
the election in Matter of Industrial Rayon Corporation, 19 where it
was shown that the employer was implicated in electioneering activities
carried on by officers of an organization which was found to be
company-dominated and which was excluded from the ballot and that
the employer had paid these officers for a considerable amount of time
spent in waging a campaign against the union named on the ballot.20
The objection that no representative of the company was permitted
to observe the balloting was raised in Matter of American France
Line. 21 In dismissing the petition to set aside the ballot, the Board
said :
The Board has consistently held that in the absence of consent by the labor
organizations involved, company representatives should not be permitted to be
present at elections to determine collective bargaining representatives. The
choice of representatives by employees should be made free from any interference
or coercion by employers. The presence of an employer's representative
at an election may prevent such a free choice, although no interference
or coercion is intended by the employer.'
', Matter of Carrot/ton Metal Products Company and Amalgamated Association of
Iron, Steel, d Tin Workers of North America, Local No. 1571, 4 N. L. R. B. 142 and
6 N. L. R. B. 569.
19 Matter of Industrial Rayon Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, and Textile Workers
Organizing Committee, 7 N. L. R. B. 877.
33 A contrary result was reached in Matter of Simplex Wire and Cable Company and
Wire d Cable Workers Federal Local Union 21020, Affiliated with the A. F. of L., 6
N. L. R. B. 251 and 7 N. L. R. B. 568, in which attempts to influence the votes of the
eligible employees were made by an organization which the Board had ordered disestablished,
but there was no allegation in the objections to the election, however, of
participation by any supervisory officials of the employer in these activities.
21 Matter of American France Line at al. (Southern Steamship Company) and Inter.
national Seamen's Union of America, 4 N. L. R. B. 1140.
See Matter of Marlin-Rockwell Corporation and Local No. 338, United Automobile Workera
of America, 7 N. L. R. B. 836, in which the Board held that "under the circumstances
presented, the refusal to permit the Company to have a representative at the balloting was
not an abuse of discretion on the part of the representatives of the Board"; and also
Matter of Fedders Manufacturing Company. Inc. and Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Steel ct Tin Workers of N. A., Lodge 1153, 7 N. L. R. B. 817, in which the Board said : "The