NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

62 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
100% to the laws of this count6. If by any chance 51% of our employees
should join the Union, and their outside representative would call on us, an
officer or representative of this company would naturally, under the law, bargain
with him or them. I doubt however that my people would choose to have
an outsider represent them.
That same night the president addressed the knitters in the plant
at midnight and, referring to the organizational efforts, said "I
cleaned them out two years ago and I am going to clean them out
again if I have to fire every damn man I have got * * * This
is my plant, and I will run it the way I please." Earlier that same
day an employee was discharged for union membership. The Board
stated :
Nebel's Christmas speech, as related in the testimony of the two employees,
foreshadowed the hostility which the Union was to encounter. * * * We are
convinced that the midnight session with the knitters was a step deliberately
taken for the purpose of interfering with, restraining, and coercing these employees
in rights which were secured them under the act. Nebel's attempt
to portray this incident as a casual conversation between himself and the
employees, to discuss provisions of the Act, is not borne out by the evidence.
The hour of the conversation, his own presence, the discharge of Griffin earlier
in the day, his knowledge that the Union organizers had been distributing
circulars outside the mill, render such interpretation highly implausible. * * *
We also view the use to which the respondent put the sheet "Facts about the
Wagner Law" as interference and coercion of the same stamp. This unfair
labor practice was rooted not so much in the distribution or contents, per .se,
of the reprint, but in the statements of Nebel which accompanied distribution.
The emphasis placed, in his letter to the employees, upon the words of the
reprint that an employer had the right to select and discharge employees,
followed, as it was, by Nebel's own words that "Personally, I don't deny the
fact that I am against labor Unions," was well calculated to intimidate The
concluding appeal of the letter, "I doubt however that my people would choose
to have an outsider represent them," under the facts involved, was coercive
* * *.
7. MISCELLANEOUS VIOLATIONS OF SECTION 8 (1)
The more common forms of employer action violative of the section
have been dealt with above. The cases, however, contain considerable
antiunion conduct which, while not as recurrent, nevertheless has
been the subject of consideration by the Board. Thus section (1)
WaS held violated by the employers' attempt to place limitations upon
what representatives the employees should designate as their collective
bargaining representative ; 52 and a similar attempt, although
unsuccessful, to dictate to them the form of their labor organization,
such as an "inside" union.53
A discharge of workers for engaging in concerted activities unrelated
to union organization may constitute an unfair labor practice
under the section. In Matter of Indianapolis Glove Company, 54 employees
were dismissed for engaging in a brief stoppage of work
induced by a wage grievance. The Board's opinion pointed out :
iv See Matter of Oregon Worsted Company and United Textile Workers of America,
Local 205, 1 N. L. R. B. 916, order enforced in National Labor Relations Board v. Oregon
Worsted Company, 96 F. (2d) 193 (C. C. A. 9th, 1938) ; Matter of Wallace Manufacturing
Company, Inc., and Local No. 2237, United Textile Workers of America, 2 N. L. It. B. 1081,
order enforced in National Labor Relations Hoard v. Wallace Mfg. Co., Inc., 95 F. (2d)
818 (C. C. A. 4th, 1938).
s' See Matter of Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation and Amalgamated Association of
Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of North America, Local 66, 5 N. L. R. B., enforcement denied
on other grounds in Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board.
98 F. (2d) 375 (C. C. A. 7th, 1938), certiorari granted November 19, 1938; Matter of
United Carbon Company, inc., and Oil Workers International Union, Local 2,56 ., 7 N. L. R. B.
598.
54 Matter' of Indianapolis Glove Company and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America,
5 N. L. R. B. 231.