G.E.S. Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board

The employer, G.E.S., Inc. has petitioned this court for review of a decision and order of the National Labor Relations Board which found that it had committed unfair labor practices and which directed the petitioner to bargain with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The NLRB has filed a cross-application for enforcement of its decision. The decision and order are reported at 258 N.L.R.B. No. 40. (September 25, 1981). Following a hearing the administrative law judge found that the petitioner had violated § 8 (a) (1) of the National Labor Relations Act in the following manner: by threatening its employees with store closure if the union should became their collective bargaining representative; by coercively interrogating employees with respect to their union activities and those of other employees; by soliciting employees to report on the union activities of other employees; by promising and granting benefits and soliciting the presentation of grievances and adjusting such grievances in order to discourage employees from designating a collective bargaining representative; and by granting its employees excessive wage increases with knowledge of and for the purpose of affecting the union's organizing campaign. In addition to ordering the petitioner to cease and desist from these practices, the administrative law judge recommended that the petitioner be required to recognize and bargain collectively with the union upon request. In ruling on the exceptions to the decision of the administrative law judge, the Board affirmed his findings and conclusions with one exception, finding that one employee whom the administrative law judge found to be a supervisor was not in fact a supervisor within the meaning of the Act. The Board also approved the order as recommended by the administrative law judge.