NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

VII. PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED 59
6. INTIMIDATORY ANITONION STATEMENTS
The use of the written or spoken word by the employer as an antiunion
weapon arises with frequency and variety in the cases. Spreading
of rumors, talks to individual employees and speeches to groups
of them, notices of various import and use, the distribution of pamphlets
and other literature have been utilized as media for preventing.,
combating, or destroying unionization.
In some cases, the statements are patently intimidatory or coercive.
Typical is the following: "We don't want no outside union to come
in and run our business for us." 37 In one case, the general superintendent
announced, "the union principles are fine, but we don't want
no union in our plant." 38 Often statements of like import are coupled
with a threat to close or move the plant if the employees join the
union. 3° In some cases, however, the intimidatory or coercive nature
and effect of the statement made or used appears only when it is examined
in the context of surrounding circumstances and in its relation
to the entire factual background. The violation in these cases
necessarily depends on these other factors. The Board has found an
unfair labor practice under section 8 (1) in employer statements to
employees describing union organizers as "racketeers," "parasites," or
as persons interested solely in their own monetary advancement; 40
statements asserting that union dues are used by organizers to buy
clothes,41 get drunk, 42 or to purchase big black cigars; 43 statements
depicting unions as "rotten' or "corrupt," and the employees who
join them as "thugs and highwaymen," "cutthroats," and reds." 44
In one case the union was termed a "dark cloud" or "stranger" which
would destroy the "happy family" relationship between the company
31 See, for example, Matter of Maryland Distillery, Inc., and Distillery Workers Union
10270, 3 N. L. R. B. 176.
33 Matter of Dunbar Glass Corporation and Committee for Industrial Organization, 6
N. L. R. B. 789.
3‘. Threats of this nature have appeared in a great number of cases. For some typical
examples. see Matter of Remington Rand, Inc., and Remington Rand Joint Protective Board
of the District Counoi/ Office Equipment Workers, 2 N. L. R. B. 626• Matter of Leo L.
Lowy and International Association of Machinists, 3 N. L. R. B. 93g; Matter of Titan
Metal Manufacturing Company and Federal Labor Union No. 19981, 5 N. L. R. B. 577;
Matter of Stackpole Carbon Company and United Electrical and Radio Workers of America.
6 N. L. R. B. 171. In Matter of Omaha Hat Corporation and United Hatters, Cap and
Millinery Workers International Union, 4 N. L. R. B. 878, the'company actually signed a
lease for a building in another community, and began to move its machinery, in order to
avoid dealing with the union.
.) See for example Matter of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation and Amalgamated
Association of Iron. Steel it Tin Workers of North America, 1 N. L. R. B. 503. order
enforced in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones it Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 IL S. 1.
enforcement denied in 83 F. (2d) 998 (C. C. A. 5th, 1936) ; Matter of Oregon Worsted
Company and United Textile Workers of America, 3 N. L. R. B. 36; Matter of Trenton
Philadelphia Coach Company and Amalgamated Association of Street, Electrical Railway
and Motor Coach Etnployees of America, 6 N. L. R. B. 112.
41 Matter of Bell Oil it Gas Co. and Local Union 258 of the International Association of
Oil Field, Gas Well, and Refinery Workers of America. et al., 1 N. L. R. B. 562.
. 3Matter of Crucible Steel Company of America and Strip Steel and Wire Workers Union,
2 N. L R. B. 298.
,3 Matter of Greensboro Lumber Co. and Lumber and Sawmill Workers Local Union No.
2688, 1 N. L. R. B. 629. Employers sometimes paint a lurid picture in this respect. See,
for example. Matter of Gating Rope Works. Inc.. and Textile Workers Organizing Committee.
4 N. L. R. B. 1100, where company officials told the employees that the company
"did not want any union organizers sitting around with their feet on a desk, smoking big
black cigars, and collecting dues from its employees." In the Greensboro Lumber case
an employee was warned that while the organizer was sitting in his hotel smoking a
cigar, he would "be down here stopping bullets."
44 Matter of Jones it Laughlin Steel Corporation and Amalgamated Association of Iron.
Steel it Tin Workers of North America, Beaver Valley Lodge No. 200, 1 N. L. R. B. 503;
Matter of Crucible Steel Company and Strip Steel and Wire Workers Union, Local No.
20084, American Federation of Labor, 2 N. L. R. B. 298; Matter of Ralph A. Freundlich,
Inc.. and Max Marcus. et a/.. 2 N. L. R. B. 802. For a comprehensive characterization. see
Matter of Knoxville Glove Company and Textile Workers Organizing Committee, 5 N. L. R. B.
559. where the business manager of the company described the union as a bunch of
"Communists and Reds and foreigners."
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