Merck & Co., Inc.

MERCK & COMPANY, INC. 891 MERCK & COMPANY, INC. and UNITED GAS, COKE & CHEMICAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO , Petitioner. Case No. 2-RC-5030. May 11, 1953 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND ORDER On March 18, 1953, pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election' issued by the Board on February 24, 1953, and an Order Amending Direction of Election, issued on March 5, 1953, an election by secret ballot was conducted under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Second Region among the employees of the Employer in the unit found appropriate in the Decision. Three labor organizations appeared on the ballot: United Gas, Coke & Chemical Workers of America, CIO, hereinafter referred to as the CIO; Employees Organization Inc. of Merck & Company, hereinafter referred to as the EOM; and Inter- national Chemical Workers Union, AFL, hereinafter referred to as the AFL. The election did not result in a majority of the ballots being cast for any of the choices. The tally of ballots showed 1,405 ballots cast; 685 for the CIO, 545 for the EOM, 154 for the AFL, 11 against the participating labor organizations, 4 void , and 6 challenged. The EOM filed timely objections to conduct allegedly affecting the results of the election. After investigation the Regional Director on April 6, 1953, issued and served upon the parties a report recommending that the objections be overruled and that a runoff election be held with the EOM and the CIO appearing on the ballot. The EOM duly filed excep- tions on April 14 and a supporting brief. The EOM's first objection was to the following excerpt from a pamphlet distributed by the CIO to the Merck employees on March 3, 1953, which it characterizes as a false statement which coerced the judgment of the employees. THE EOM TOP DOGS LIKE THEIR PETTY GRAFT Its the $35 and $45 per month that keeps the EOM boys on the job of selling out the Merck workers. Of the $1800 or so taken in monthly the EOM grafters grab it all. Since EOM dues have been at the $1 rate more than $100,000 (one hundred thousand dollars) have been paid out to the willing stooges. The $420 and $480 per year plus expenses are not to be given up willingly by the grafters. Another form of graft far more sinister which the EOM boys look forward to receiving is the supervisory appoint- ments which come with such regularity to EOM misleaders that it can hardly be accidental or coincidental. It must be that they have earned their supervisory appointments somehow. Now, how do you suppose it happened? 1102 NLRB 1612. 104 NLRB No. 124. 892 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The EOM excepted to the Regional Director's conclusion that this objection was without merit regardless of the truth or falsehood of the statement complained of. In so doing it ap- parently takes the position that if the statement was false it was necessarily coercive and therefore the Board must determine its truth or falsity. Wee do not agree. Absent threats or other elements of intimidation we will not undertake to censor or police union campaigns or consider the truth or falsity of official union utterances,$ unless the ability of the employees to evaluate such utterances has been so impaired by the use of forged campaign material or other campaign trickery that the unco- erced desires of the employees cannot be determined in an election.4 Such circumstances do not exist here. The statements complained of are obvious propaganda, clearly recognizable as such by the employees, who, in our opinion, were and are entirely competent to evaluate such material. We find this objection to be without merit, and hereby overrule it. The EOM filed but one other objection, a general allegation that the CIO had circulated "other false propaganda" which did not come within the bounds of legitimate campaigning and which the Board should investigate. The Regional Director recommended that the objection be overruled because the EOM offered no supporting evidence in the course of his investiga- tion. No exceptions were filed to this recommendation. The objection is hereby overruled. ORDER IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this case be, and it hereby is, remanded to the Regional Director for the Second Region for further appropriate proceedings under Sections 102.61 and 102.62 of the Board's Rules and Regulations. 2Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act the Board has delegated its powers in connection with the supplemental proceedings in the case to a three-member panel [Chair- man Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock]. 3Kearney & Trecker Corporation, 96 NLRB 1214; Western Electric Company, Incorporated, 87 NLRB 183. 4For examples of devices held to have produced suc: impairment see United Aircraft Corporation, 103 NLRB 102, and Timken-Detroit Axle Company, 98 NLRB 790. ARMSTRONG TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY' and INTER- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS LODGE NO. 855, AFL, Petitioner. Cases Nos. 15-RC-808, 15-RC-809, 15-RC-810, 15-RC-811, 15-RC-812, 15-RC-813, 15-RC-814, and 15-RC-815. May 11, 1953 DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Joseph Smolen, 1 The eight petitions herein were consolidated by order of the Regional Director.