National Licorice Co. v. Labor Board, 309 U.S. 350 (1940)
National Licorice Co. v. National Labor Relations Board
No. 272
Argued February 7, 1940
Decided March 4, 1940
309 U.S. 350
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
Syllabus
1. Substantial evidence sustains a finding by the National Labor Relations Board that a particular union was the choice of a majority of employees, as bargaining representative of all at a time when their employer refused to deal with it as representative of employees who were not members of the union. P. 357.
2. Employees in a plant agreed individually with the employer not to strike or to demand a closed shop or a signed agreement with any union, also for arbitration as to wages and hours, but that the question of the propriety of an employee’s discharge should in no event be one for arbitration or mediation. The contracts were procured with the aid of a committee of employees which was created for that purpose, and dominated, by the employer, and retained thereafter no function other than that of joining the employer in selection of an arbitrator.
Held:
(1) That the contracts were in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, and were appropriate subjects for the remedial action of the Board authorized by § 10 of the Act. P. 359.
(2) An order of the Board precluding the employer from taking any benefit of the contracts and from carrying out any of their provisions the effect of which would be to infringe rights guaranteed by the Act was valid, although the employees who made the contracts were not parties to the Board’s proceeding. P. 361.
(3) Such order does not foreclose the employees from taking any action to secure an adjudication upon the contracts, nor prejudge their rights in the event of such adjudication. P. 365.
(4) Section 10(a) and (c) of the Act commits to the Board the exclusive power to decide whether unfair labor practices have been committed and, within the limits prescribed in that section, to determine what action the employer must take to remove or avoid their consequences. P. 365.
(5) A provision of the order requiring the employer to post notice that the contracts with individual employees (who were not parties to the proceedings) are "void and of no effect" should be modified so as to say in lieu that the contracts were made in violation of the Act, and that the employer will no longer offer, solicit, enter into, continue, enforce, or attempt lo enforce such contracts with its employees, but this without prejudice to the assertion by the employees of any legal rights they may have acquired under such contracts. P. 367.
(6) The Board has jurisdiction to deal with violations which, though not set up in the charge invoking its action, § 10(b), are continuations of violations there alleged, of the same class and for the same object. P. 367.
104 F.2d 655 affirmed with modification.
Certiorari, 308 U.S. 535, to review a judgment for the enforcement of an order of the National Labor Relations Board.