Equitable Life Insurance Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board DecisionsMar 25, 1963

141 N.L.R.B. 718 (N.L.R.B. 1963)

718 DECISIONS Or NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD in writing, that it will comply with the foregoing recommendations,24 the National Labor Relations Board issue an order requiring Respondent to take the aforesaid action. It is further recommended that the allegations of paragraph VI(b) of the complaint be dismissed. 24 In the event this Recommended Order be adopted by the Board, this provision shall be modified to read: "Notify said Regional Director, in writing, within 10 days from the date of this Order, what steps the Respondent has taken to comply therewith " APPENDIX NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES Pursuant to the Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner of the National Labor Relations Board, and in order to effectuate the policies of the National Labor Rela- tions Act, we hereby notify our employees that: WE WILL NOT discourage membership in Division 1177, Amalgamated Asso- ciation of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, AFL-CIO, or any other labor organization of our employees, by discriminating in regard to their hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment. WE WILL NOT require applicants for employment to answer any questions con- cerning their union membership in a manner constituting interference, restraint, or coercion in violation of Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act. WE WILL NOT interrogate our employees concerning their interest in, or inten- tions with respect to, joining the above-named or any other labor organization, or threaten said employees with economic reprisals because they engage in pro- tected activities, in a manner constituting interference, restraint, or coercion vio- lative of Section 8 (a) (1) of the Act. WE WILL NOT engage in or attempt to engage in, or create the impression of, surveillance of union meetings. WE WILL NOT in any other manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce our em- ployees in the exercise of the right to self-organization, to form labor organiza- tions, to join or assist Division 1177, Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, AFL-CIO, or any other labor organization, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choos- ing, and to engage in any other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or mutual aid or protection, or to refrain from any and all such activities. WE WILL offer to Roland J. Bell immediate and full reinstatement to his former or substantially equivalent position, without prejudice to seniority or other rights and privileges, and make him whole for any loss of salary or pay suffered as a re- sult of the discrimination against him. COMMUNITY MOTOR Bus COMPANY, INC., Employer. Dated------------------- By------------------------------------------- (Representative) (Title) This notice must remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting, and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material. Employees may communicate directly with the Board's Regional Office, 707 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore 2, Maryland, Telephone No. 752-8460, Extension 2100, if they have any question concerning this notice or compliance with its provisions. Equitable Life Insurance Company and Insurance Workers International Union , AFL-CIO. Case No. 8-CA-29541. March 25, 1963 DECISION AND ORDER On January 29, 1963, Trial Examiner A. Norman Somers issued his Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, and on 141 NLRB No. 67. EQUITABLE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 719 February 4, 1963, an Errata to said Intermediate Report, finding that the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the Intermediate Report and Errata attached herto. Thereafter, the Respondent filed exceptions to the Intermediate Report and a supporting brief. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Leedom and Brown. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Examiner made at the hearing and finds that no prejudicial error was committed. The rulings are "aereby affirmed. The Board has considered the Inter- mediate Report and the entire record in the case, including the excep- tions and brief, and hereby adopts the Trial Examiner's findings, con- clusions, and recommendations. ORDER The Board. adopts as its Order the Recommended Order of the Trial Examiner, with the following modifications : 1. Substitute the following for paragraph 1(b) of the Recommended Order : Interfering with the efforts of the Insurance Workers Inter- national Union, AFL-CIO, to negotiate for or represent the employees in the said appropriate unit as the exclusive bargaining agent. 2. Substitute the following for the last paragraph of the notice in the Appendix to the Intermediate Report : WE WILL NOT interfere with the efforts of the Insurance Work- ers International Union, AFL-CIO, to negotiate for or represent the employees in the said appropriate unit as the exclusive bar- gaining agent. 3. Substitute the following for the present penultimate sentence of the notice : This notice must remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting, and must not be altered, defaced, or covered by any other material. MEDIBER, LEEDOM, dissenting : In the representation case, Equitable Life Insurance Company, 138 NLRB 529, which is the predicate for the majority decision in this case, the dissent indicated my disagreement with the Board's unit find- ing. I adhere to the position set forth in the dissent and consequent- ly I would not find that the Respondent violated the Act by refusing ,to bargain with respect to what I consider to be an inappropriate unit. 720 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD INTERMEDIATE REPORT AND RECOMMENDED ORDER I STATEMENT AND FINDINGS On October 5, 1962, the Regional Director for the Eighth Region of the Board, in Case No. 8-RC-4590, on the basis of the Union's polling a majority of the votes in an election duly conducted pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election of the Board issued September 11, 1962, duly certified the Charging Party, which was the petition- ing union in said proceeding, as the exclusive bargaining representative of the em- ployees in the unit described in the Recommended Order below. In its Decision and Direction of Election 2 the Board had found to be appropriate and directed the elec- tion to be held among a unit of employees other than what Respondent contended was an appropriate unit. Claiming the Board's ruling thereon to have been er- roneous, Respondent disputes the validity of the certification. To test that issue, Re- spondent, in a letter in answer to the Union's request to bargain, and as its counsel has admitted at the hearing herein, has refused and continues to refuse to bargain with the Union in respect to the employees in the unit prescribed in the Direction of Election and as embodied in the certification. All else is not in dispute, and is hereby found, namely, that Respondent is engaged in commerce and that the Union is a labor organization. As to the matter in dispute, under well-established doctrine, Trial Examiner A. Nor- man Somers is bound by the Board's ruling in the representation proceeding and the ensuing certification.3 On the basis thereof, it is found and concluded that the Union was duly designated as collective-bargaining representative by a majority of the employees in the unit described in the certification, and, in accordance with the certification, is the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of all the employees in the unit in question, within the meaning of Section 9(a) of the Act Hence, by refusing to bargain with the Union so certified, Respondent has engaged in and is engaging in an unfair labor practice within the meaning of Section 8(a) (5) and, derivativelyl, also 8 (a) (1) of the Act. On the basis of the foregoing and the record in this and the representation pro- ceeding, the undersigned, pursuant to Section 10(c) of the Act, hereby issues the following: RECOMMENDED ORDER Respondent Equitable Life Insurance Company, its agents, officers, successors, and assigns, shall- 1. Cease and desist from: (a) Refusing to bargain collectively with Insurance Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, as the duly certified exclusive bargaining representative of its employees in the following unit- All debit insurance agents in the Company's Cleveland East and Cleveland West district offices. Cleveland, Ohio. and its detached office in Lorain, Ohio, excluding of- fice clerical employees, canvassers, canvassing agents, collectors, regular ordinary agents, guards, district managers, associated district managers, staff managers, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act. (b) In any like or related manner, interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of the right to bargain collectively through said Union, or any other labor organization of their own choosing. 2. Take the following affirmative action, which it is found will effectuate the policies of the Act: (a) Upon request, bargain collectively with the said certified Union as the ex- clusive representative of the employees in the unit described above, with respect to grievances, labor disputes, rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other conditions of work, and, if an agreement is reached, embody it in a signed contract. (b) Post at its Cleveland East and Cleveland West offices in Cleveland, Ohio, and its detached office in Lorain, Ohio, copies of the attached notice marked "Appendix." 4 'Procedural chronology: charge filed October 26, 1962; complaint issued November 8, 1962; and hearing thereon held In Cleveland, Ohio, on January 21, 1963 2138 NLRB 529. 3 E g, Royal McBee Corporation, 133 NLRB 1450, and cases cited at footnote 5. 4In the event that this Recommended Order be adopted by the Board, the words "A Decision and Order" shall be substituted for the words "The Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner" In the notice . In the further event that the Board's Order be enforced by a decree of a United States Court of Appeals, the words "Pursuant to a Decree of the United States Court of Appeals, Enforcing an Order" shall be substituted for the words "Pursuant to a Decision and Order " RIGGS DISTLER & CO., INC. 721 Copies of the said notice , to be furnished by the Regional Director for the Eighth Region , shall, after being duly signed by the Respondent 's representative, be posted by it immediately upon receipt thereof and maintained by it for 60 consecutive days thereafter in conspicuous places, including all places where notices to employees are customarily posted. Reasonable steps shall be taken by the Respondent to insure that said notices are not altered , defaced, or covered by any other material. (c) Notify the said Regional Director , in writing , within 20 days of the receipt of this Recommended Order, what steps it has taken to comply therewith.5 5In the event that this Recommended Order be adopted by the Board , this provision shall be modified to read: "Notify said Regional Director , in writing , within 10 days from the date of this Order, what steps the Respondent has taken to comply herewith." APPENDIX NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES Pursuant to the Recommended Order of a Trial Examiner of the National Labor Relations Board, and in order to effectuate the policies of the Labor Management Relations Act, we hereby notify our employees that: WE WILL bargain collectively , upon request , with Insurance Workers Inter- national Union , AFL-CIO, as the exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the bargaining unit described below concerning grievances, labor disputes , wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, and other conditions of work, and if an understanding is reached , embody it in a signed agreement. The bargaining unit is: All debit insurance agents in the Company 's Cleveland East and Cleve- land West district offices, Cleveland, Ohio, and its detached office in Lorain , Ohio, excluding office clerical employees , canvassers , canvassing agents, collectors , regular ordinary agents, guards , district managers, as- sociated district managers , staff managers , and all other supervisors as de- fined in the Act. WE WILL NOT refuse to bargain collectively as aforesaid, nor will we, in any like or related manner, interfere with , restrain , or coerce our employees in the exercise of their right to bargain collectively through the said union or any other labor organization of their own choosing. EQUITABLE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Employer. Dated------------------- By------------------------------------------- (Representative) (Title) This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date of posting, and must not be altered , defaced, or covered by any other material. Employees may communicate directly with the Board 's Regional Office, 720 Bulkley Building, 1501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, Telephone No. Maine 1-4465, if they have any question concerning this notice or compliance with its provisions. Riggs Distler & Co., Inc. and Edwin A. Sweglar, Jr .; G. Howard Groscup ; James C. Dunn , Sr.; C. Robert Fenner. Cases Nos. 5-CA-2029-1, 5-CA-2029-2, 5-CA-2029-3, and 5-CA-2029-4. March 25, 1963 DECISION AND ORDER On November 15, 1962, Trial Examiner Paul Bisgyer issued his Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that the Respondent had engaged in and Was engaging in certain unfair labor practices and recommending that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action, as set forth in the attached Intermediate 141 NLRB No. 66.