NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

60 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and its employees." Statements disparaging the effectiveness of the
act in protecting employees and in according them rights have been
held a violation. Thus an assertion that "the Wagner Labor Relations
Act was just a bluff ;" 4° or purported explanations of the act
through negative treatment which stress such matters as the retention
by the employer of his right to hire and discharge, at the same
time carefully omitting mention of the employee rights which the act
guarantees.47
In some cases the statements are not made by the employer himself
or through persons in his employ, but through third persons,
such as civic officials, whom the employer utilizes for such purpose.
This also has been held a violation."
The importance of an examination of the circumstances surrounding
the statement and of the general background of the case is shown
in ilfatt& of Indianapolis Glove Company. 49 In that case the company
discharged employees for union activities and sponsored a
company-dominated labor organization among the employees. Coincident
therewith an official addressed the employees in each department,
bitterly denouncing the outside union, stating that it was
only fomenting trouble to obtain the employees' money, and that
the company did not need any "outsiders" to help run the plant. The
employees were warned that if the outside union succeeded, the plant
would be closed. The same official later made another series of addresses,
telling the employees that he could speak plainer than the
"bunch of foreigners" in the outside union, who, he averred, probably
had been chased out of their own countries. The Board found
these statements, under the circumstances, a violation of section 8 (1).
In Matter of The Triplett Electrical Instrument Company," the
two companies jointly operated the principal business establishment in
a town of about 2,500 inhabitants. In March 1937 the employees organized
a local of the United Electrical and Radio Workers of
America. The president of the companies thereupon called a meeting
of employees in the plant laboratory and told them that an "inside"
union would be more in their interest. He asked for a viva voce vote
on an inside or outside union, and upon no one voting against an
inside union appointed a committee to form such an organization.
After his departure from the meeting, the employees held a secret
ballot among themselves, and a decided preference was shown for
outside affiliation. The company thereafter closed the plant,
45 Matter of Williams Manufacturing Company and United Shoe Workers of America,
6 N. L. R. B. 135.
44 Matter of Clover Fork Coal Company and District 19, United Mine Workers of America.
4 N. L. R. B. 202. In Matter of Union Die Casting Company, Ltd., and International
Union United Automobile Workers of America, 7 N. L. R. B. 846, after the issuance
of the Trial Examiner's Intermediate Report, the company posted a notice in the plant
castigating the Report as "villanous, partial, one-sided, and otherwise unfair." The notice
went on to characterize the Act as "the abomination of abominations," protested that "we
should not be spending hundreds of dollars to satisfy rotten politicians and grafting
parasites," and expressed the hope that the employees realized "what a hell of a mess
certain labor racketeers have made of things and what a big ass our government has
become to tolerate such acts." .
47 See Matter of Mansfield Mills. Inc.. and Textile Workers Organizing Committee,
3 N. L. R. B. 901. Cf. Matter of Nebel Knitting Company, Inc., and American Federation
of Hosiery Workers, 6 N. L. R B. 284.
" See, for example. Matter of Freezer & Sons., Inc., and Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America, 3 N. L. R. B. 120; Matter of Regal Shirt Company and Amalgamated
,Clothim , Workers of America, 4 N. L. R. B. 567; Matter of Christian A. Lund and Wooden,
ware Workers-Union. 6 N. L It. B. 423.
" Matter of Indianapolis Glove Company and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America,
5 N. L. R. B. 231.
60 Matter of The Triplett Electrical Instrument Company. the Diller Manufacturing Coin.
„pqny, and Unjtedftlectrical and Radio Workors of Amcrica ...5 .N. L. R. B. 835.