National Labor Relations Board v. Bailey Co‪.‬

MCALLISTER, C.J.: This is a petition for enforcement of an order of the National Labor Relations Board which found, upon undisputed evidence, that during the week preceding an election directed by the Board, respondent company called each of its employees to its office, and after impressing upon each of them its opposition to the union, proceeded to advise them of its intention to grant certain economic benefits to them. The Board concluded that the promising of such benefits in this manner and under the attendant circumstances interfered with, restrained, and coerced the employees in the exercise of the rights of self-organization and collective bargaining through representatives of their own choosing, guaranteed them under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. It, accordingly, ordered respondent to cease and desist from in any manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of such rights.While declaring that expressions of views voiced by the company to certain of its employees and statements contained in circulars and notices distributed to them by the company before the election clearly indicated respondents hostility to the union and its leaders and the companys preference for individual bargaining, the Board held that this was an expression of opinion protected by the constitutional guarantee of free speech. The Board based its findings of an unfair labor practice upon the promises of economic benefits made by the company to the employees immediately preceding the election.