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NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

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VII. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED 57<br />

pany, 31 the petition, also circulated with company assistance, not only<br />

recited opposition to "outside" representation, but further provided<br />

that the signatories would not recognize any strike or respect any<br />

picket line unless a majority of the employees consented to the strike.<br />

Great pressure was brought to bear by supervisors upon employees<br />

to sign.<br />

5. USE OF CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT WITH INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES TO OBSTRUCT<br />

UNIONIZATION<br />

The employer in some of the cases has sought to defeat organizational<br />

efforts by inviting or requiring employees to enter into individual<br />

contracts of employment with it. In a number of instances the<br />

contract follows, or substantially follows, the form of individual employment<br />

contract prepared for employers by one L. L. Balleisen,<br />

secretary of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Such a contract<br />

and one of its uses were before the Board in Matter of Hopwood<br />

Reaming Company, Inc. 32 The employees in that case were locked<br />

out upon their undertaking to organize a union. After causing a<br />

deadlock in the negotiations involving a return of the employees, by<br />

refusing to make a contract with the union, the company informed<br />

the employees that they could return if they individually signed a<br />

proposed contract between it and "the duly elected collective bargaining<br />

committee consisting of all the production employees * * *<br />

and each and every one of the production employees." The contract<br />

provided that the employees would not go on strike prior to 1942, and<br />

further provided, as stated by the Board :<br />

Pursuant to the contract, "any employee has a right to join any union of<br />

his own choosing, or to refrain from joining any union. Furthermore, no employee<br />

or person working for the employer shall be obliged or required to join<br />

any union. The employees, or any of them, shall not and have not the right<br />

to demand a closed shop or recognition by the employer of any union, and the<br />

employer has the absolute and unqualified right to hire or discharge any employee<br />

or employees for any reason or for no reason and regardless of his or<br />

their affiliation or nonaffiliation with any union." By the contract, it is "the<br />

intention of the employer that employees be not unjustly discharged. It is<br />

strictly understood and agreed, however, that the question as to the propriety<br />

of any employee's discharge is in no event to be one for arbitration or mediation,<br />

and that any action of reinstatement, if any, will be taken voluntarily by the<br />

employer if it deems such reinstatement advisable."<br />

The contract further states that "all of the parties understand and agree<br />

that the propositions and questions of a closed shop and the recognition of a<br />

union are not and shall at no time be matters subject to or to be submitted to<br />

arbitration."<br />

The Board stated that while the contract was "cleverly disguised<br />

as a collective agreement," it nevertheless was an individual employment<br />

contract; and found that the company by its course of conduct<br />

in seeking to foist such a contract upon its individual employees, had<br />

violated both sections 8 (1) and (5). The Board referred to the<br />

following statement in an earlier decision : 33<br />

The contract deprives each employee who signs it of the right to strike until<br />

November 1, 1940, of the right to demand recognition of any union by the em-<br />

31 Matter of Sunshine Mining Company and International Union of Mine, Mill, and<br />

Smelter Workers, 7 N. L. R. B. 1292.<br />

2,2 Matter of Hopwood Retinning Company, Inc., and Monarch. Retinning Company, Ina..<br />

and Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers, and Helpers International Union, Local No. 8, and<br />

Teamsters Union, Local No. 584. 4 N. L. R. B. 922.<br />

n Matter of Atlas Bag and Burlap Company, Inc., and Burlap and Cotton Bag Workers<br />

Local Union N. 2489, 1 N. L. R. B. 292.

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