Campbell Steel Co.

168 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Campbell Steel Company and Campbell Steel Warehouse Com- pany and United Steelworkers of America , AFL-CIO, Peti- tioner. Case No. 39-RC-1192. March 20, 1958 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF SECOND ELECTION Pursuant to a Board Decision and Direction of Election 1 an elec- tion by secret ballot was conducted on November 14 and 15, 1957, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Sixteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board among the employees in the unit therein found appropriate. Follow- ing the election, the parties were furnished a tally of ballots which showed that of approximately 252 eligible voters, 246 cast valid ballots of which 87 were for the Petitioner and 159 were against the Peti- tioner. There was one void ballot and no challenged ballots. On November 21, 1957, the Petitioner filed timely objections to conduct affecting the results of the election. The Regional Director investigated the objections and on January 15, 1958, issued and duly served upon the parties his report on objections in which he recom- mended that objections 1 and 3 be sustained and that the election be set aside and that a new election be ordered by the Board. The Regional Director recommended that objection 9 be overruled, and found it unnecessary to make any findings and recommendations concerning the remaining objections. The Employer filed timely exceptions to the Regional Director's recommendations that objections 1 and 3 be sustained. No other exceptions were filed by either party. 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 [Members Rodgers, Bean, and Fanning]. Upon the basis of the entire record in this case, the Board finds : Objection 1: The employees polled in this election work at 2 sep- arate plants, 1 in San Antonio, and 1 in Corpus Christi. The Re- gional Director found that a majority of the employees at the Employer's San Antonio and Corpus Christi plants were summoned by management to individual interviews concerning this pending elec- tion which were conducted in offices away from the employees' job sites by high-ranking officials of the Employer. According to the Employer, these interviews lasted from 3 to 5 minutes. At the San Antonio plant, employees were interviewed by Vice President Sprague in his private office. At the Corpus Christi plant, the interviews were conducted by R. T. Campbell, the Employer's president, in the office of Vice President Stocking. At each plant, the offices are enclosed and separately located in a building housing other plant administra- 3 Not published. 120 NLRB No. 24. CAMPBELL STEEL COMPANY 169 tive offices. In addition, employees were interviewed in the Corpus Christi shipping office, a frame structure which is physically separated from the plant proper by a distance of some 30 or 40 feet. On these facts, the Regional Director concluded that the series of individual interviews interfered with the employees' freedom of choice in the election, and he therefore recommended that the election be set aside and a new election be directed. We agree with the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Regional Director pertaining to objection 1. In its exceptions, the Employer does not dispute the factual findings of the Regional Director, but rather, seeks to excuse its conduct on the ground, in substance, that there was no other practicable method by which its views could be conveyed to the employees, and that such conduct was necessary in order to counteract the Petitioner's preelection cam- paigning. However, the Board has long held that the technique of calling employees, individually or in small groups, into the Employer's office and urging them to reject the union is in itself conduct which interferes with the conditions necessary to a free choice by the, em- ployees in the selection of a bargaining representative and warrants setting aside the election .2 We deem it unnecessary to consider the Employer's contention that the shipping office at the Corpus Christi plant should not be considered the "locus of final authority" within the meaning of the precedent cases. The widespread conduct shown here of individual interviews in various administrative offices, apart from the employees' normal workplaces, is sufficient to require setting aside the election without regard to other matters. Objection 3: The Regional Director also based its recommendation for setting aside the election on the further ground that the Employer's representatives used marked sample ballots in the course of the indi- vidual interviews described above. There appears to be some ques- tion as to whether the use of sample ballots in this case violated the rule established by the Board in the Allied Electric Products, Inc., case. As we are setting aside the election for the reasons stated in objection 1, we deem it unnecessary to resolve this apparent dispute. As no exceptions were filed concerning the remaining objections, we also adopt the Regional Director's recommendation that objection 9 be overruled, and we agree with him that the other objections need not be considered on their merits. [The Board set aside the election held on November 14 and 15, 1957.] [Text of Direction of Second Election omitted from publication.] ' See for example, Red River Broadcasting Co, Inc., 115 NLRB 1212; Economic Ma- chinery Company, 111 NLRB 947, 949. 3 109 NLRB 1270.