NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

84 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
that a closed-shop contract and the discharge of employees pursuant
thereto were illegal because the contracting union had been assisted
by the employer's unfair labor practices. The Court held that under
the Act the employer could be charged with the antiunion activities
of minor supervisors whether or not the actions were expressly
authorized and whether or not the employer would be responsible for
the supervisors' actions under common law principles of respondeat
superior. The Court also sustained a provision of the Board's order
directing the employer to bargain with a union which had unlawfully
been denied bargaining rights, holding that it was proper for
the Board to disregard an alleged shift in majority to another union
following the unlawful refusal to bargain.
N. L. R. B. v. Link-Belt Co., 311 U. S. 584, reversing 110 F. (2d)
506 (C. C. A. 7), and enforcing Matter of Link-Belt Company and
Lodge 1604 of Amalgamated Association of Iron Steel and Tin
Workers of North America, etc., 12 N. L. R. B. 854. In reversing
the Seventh Circuit, which had set aside the major part of the Board's
order, the Supreme Court held that the lower court had substituted
its judgment on disputed facts for the Board's judgment. The
Supreme Court again stressed, as it had in the Waterman case,1
the necessity of strict judicial adherence to the congressional demarcation
of power between administrative agencies and the reviewing
courts, and admonished the lower court to refrain from encroaching
upon the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board to draw inferences from
the facts, to appraise conflicting and circumstantial evidence, and
to determine the weight and credibility of testimony. The Board
was sustained in findings that employees had been discriminatorily
discharged, and that a union was company-dominated where it
had succeeded an earlier dominated union with the aid of minor
supervisors and of employee leaders of the first union.
Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. v. N. L. R. B., 312 U. S. 660,
affirming (per curriam) 112 F. (2d) 657 (C. C. A. 2), which enforced
as modified Matter of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing
Company and United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America,
Local #410, 18 N. L. R. B. 300. In a per curiam opinion, on
the authority of the Link-Belt decision, supra, and N. L. R. B. v.
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 308 U. S. 241, the
Supreme Court affirmed a decision of the Second Circuit, which
slightly modified and enforced a Board disestablishment order. The
lower court's decision upheld findings of company domination of
a union where it was formed by employee leaders of a prior company.
dominated union without any action by the employer to mark a
"line of fracture" between the two unions in the eyes of the employees
generally.
H. J. Heinz Co. v. iV. L. R. B., 311 U. S. 514, affirming 110
F. (2d) 843 (C. C. A. 6) which enforced Matter of H. J. Heinz
Company and Cannery and Pickle Workers, Local Union No.
325, affiliated with Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen
of North America, American Federation of Labor, 10 N. L. R. B.
963. In this landmark case the Supreme Court upheld the Board's
determination that the emplo y er's refusal to enter into a written
signed contract with a union embodying terms agreed upon by both
1 N. L. R. B. V. Waterman Steamship Corp., 309 U. S. 206.