NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

VII. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED 57
pany, 31 the petition, also circulated with company assistance, not only
recited opposition to "outside" representation, but further provided
that the signatories would not recognize any strike or respect any
picket line unless a majority of the employees consented to the strike.
Great pressure was brought to bear by supervisors upon employees
to sign.
5. USE OF CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT WITH INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES TO OBSTRUCT
UNIONIZATION
The employer in some of the cases has sought to defeat organizational
efforts by inviting or requiring employees to enter into individual
contracts of employment with it. In a number of instances the
contract follows, or substantially follows, the form of individual employment
contract prepared for employers by one L. L. Balleisen,
secretary of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Such a contract
and one of its uses were before the Board in Matter of Hopwood
Reaming Company, Inc. 32 The employees in that case were locked
out upon their undertaking to organize a union. After causing a
deadlock in the negotiations involving a return of the employees, by
refusing to make a contract with the union, the company informed
the employees that they could return if they individually signed a
proposed contract between it and "the duly elected collective bargaining
committee consisting of all the production employees * * *
and each and every one of the production employees." The contract
provided that the employees would not go on strike prior to 1942, and
further provided, as stated by the Board :
Pursuant to the contract, "any employee has a right to join any union of
his own choosing, or to refrain from joining any union. Furthermore, no employee
or person working for the employer shall be obliged or required to join
any union. The employees, or any of them, shall not and have not the right
to demand a closed shop or recognition by the employer of any union, and the
employer has the absolute and unqualified right to hire or discharge any employee
or employees for any reason or for no reason and regardless of his or
their affiliation or nonaffiliation with any union." By the contract, it is "the
intention of the employer that employees be not unjustly discharged. It is
strictly understood and agreed, however, that the question as to the propriety
of any employee's discharge is in no event to be one for arbitration or mediation,
and that any action of reinstatement, if any, will be taken voluntarily by the
employer if it deems such reinstatement advisable."
The contract further states that "all of the parties understand and agree
that the propositions and questions of a closed shop and the recognition of a
union are not and shall at no time be matters subject to or to be submitted to
arbitration."
The Board stated that while the contract was "cleverly disguised
as a collective agreement," it nevertheless was an individual employment
contract; and found that the company by its course of conduct
in seeking to foist such a contract upon its individual employees, had
violated both sections 8 (1) and (5). The Board referred to the
following statement in an earlier decision : 33
The contract deprives each employee who signs it of the right to strike until
November 1, 1940, of the right to demand recognition of any union by the em-
31 Matter of Sunshine Mining Company and International Union of Mine, Mill, and
Smelter Workers, 7 N. L. R. B. 1292.
2,2 Matter of Hopwood Retinning Company, Inc., and Monarch. Retinning Company, Ina..
and Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers, and Helpers International Union, Local No. 8, and
Teamsters Union, Local No. 584. 4 N. L. R. B. 922.
n Matter of Atlas Bag and Burlap Company, Inc., and Burlap and Cotton Bag Workers
Local Union N. 2489, 1 N. L. R. B. 292.