J. - National Labor Relations Board

60 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARDthe employees surrender their right to concerted economic action.In Matter of Arcade-Sunshine Company, In,c. and Laundry WorkersCleaners & Dyers Union, 24 the respondent, during a period of unionorganization and while the union was attempting to reach a collectivebargaining agreement with the respondent, circulated among its employeesa petition in which the employees pledged themselves to"remain at our post under present working conditions." The Boardfound that the circulation of such a petition discouraged collectiveaction by the employees. The Board said :An agreement not to strike is, on its face, a limitation on the exercise of sucha right—the right to engage in concerted activities. Such a limitation alsointerferes with the right to self-organization, since it eliminates one of the mosteffective methods of organization and one of the activities for which organizationis designed. The limitation may be unobjectionable when reached as aresult of collective bargaining with the representatives of the employees in anappropriate unit ; in such case, by hypothesis, organization has been attained,and the conclusion of the agreement is itself an exercise of the right of engagingin collective activities. But imposition of such a limitation upon the individualemployee may constitute not only a form of coercion resulting from the inequalityof bargaining position, but also an obstruction, at the outset, to the developmentof effective organization, concerted activity, and collective bargaining. Thethreat of cessation of work is practically the only economic force available toemployees to invoke in their attempt to obtain concessions from their employer.Deprived of the possibility of utilizing this economic force before collective bargainingsecures such concessions, the right to organize and bargain as guaranteedby the Act becomes meaningless. Its exercise would be futile.B. ENCOURAGEMENT OR DISCOURAGEMENT OF MEMBERSHIP IN ALABOR ORGANIZATION BY DISCRIMINATIONSection 8 (3) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer :By discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any termor condition of employment to encourage or discourage memb2rship in anylabor organization : Provided, That nothing in this act * * * or in any otherstatute of the United States, shall preclude an employer from making anagreement with a labor organization (not established, maintained, or ass:stedby any action defined in this act as an unfair labor practice) to require as acondition of employment membership therein, if such labor organizatIon isthe representative of the employees as provided in section 9 (a) in the appropriatecollective bargaining unit covered by such agreement when made.z5As pointed out in the Third Annual Report, 26 the Board, in administeringsection 8 (3), has been careful not to interfere with thenormal exercise of the right of the employer to select its employeesor to discharge them. And conversely the Board has been equallydetermined not to permit in any case an unfair labor practice withinthe meaning of this section to go unchallenged under cover of thatright. The Board has never held it to be an unfair labor practicefor an employer to hire or discharge, to promote, or demote, totransfer, lay-off or reinstate, or otherwise to affect the hire or tenureof employees or their terms or conditions of employment, for assertedreasons of business, animosity, or because of sheer caprice, so long asthe employer's conduct is not wholly or in part motivated by antiunioncause.24 12 N. L. R. B. 259.By section 9 (a), the representative designated by the majority of the employees in theappropriate collective bargaining unit is the exclusive representative of all the employeesin sn.rh unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.At p. 65.