Iowa Lamb Corp.

IOWA LAMB CORP. Iowa Lamb Corporation and United Food & Com- mercial Workers International Union, AFL- CIO, CLC, Local 440, Petitioner. Case 18-RC- 13647 22 April 1985 DECISION AND DIRECTION BY CHAIRMAN DOTSON AND MEMBERS HUNTER AND DENNIS The National Labor Relations Board has consid- ered determinative challenges and objections to an election held 5 October 1984 and the hearing offi- cer's report recommending their disposition. The election was conducted pursuant to a Stipulated Election Agreement. The tally of ballots shows 32 for and 32 against the Petitioner, with 6 challenged ballots. The Board has considered the record in light of the exceptions and briefs and has adopted the hear- ing officer's findings and recommendations' only to the extent consistent with this decision. The hearing officer recommended that six chal- lenged ballots be counted and (if the Union lost) the election be set aside because on the day before the election the Employer told employees it had been seeking improved insurance coverage for them . The hearing officer stated that the absence of i Absent exceptions, we adopt pro forma the hearing officer's recom- mendations to overrule the Petitioner 's challenges to six ballots and the Petitioner's Objections 1-4 185 a specific objection did not foreclose considering the conduct as objectionable. The Petitioner did not allege that the statement was objectionable, the Regional Director did not identify it as an issue in his order directing hearing, and at the hearing the hearing officer did not inform the parties he would consider it in his report. Further, based on our review of the record, we find that the issue was not fully litigated. We therefore conclude that the hearing officer erred in considering an issue that was not fully litigated and was wholly unrelated to the issues set for hearing.2 Accordingly, we direct that the six challenged bal- lots be opened and counted and a revised tally of ballots and appropriate certification be issued. DIRECTION It is directed that the Regional Director for Region 18 shall, within 10 days from the date of this decision, open and count the ballots of Steven Bush, Bruce Coleman, Roger Millage, Wayne Radtke, Judith Brady, and Sandra Pollema, and prepare and cause to be served on the parties a re- vised tally of ballots and an appropriate certifica- tion. E We find it unnecessary to pass on whether the statement constituted objectionable conduct Member Hunter does not consider the Employer's statement to em- ployees that it had been seeking improved insurance coverage for them "wholly unrelated" to other conduct alleged in the objections However, he agrees, for the other reasons set forth above, that in the particular cir- cumstances here the hearing officer improperly relied on the Employer's statement in recommending that the election be set aside 275 NLRB No. 35