The United Electrical and Radio Workers of America, affiliated with the Committee for Industrial Organization, filed a charge, on May 5, 1937, with the National Labor Relations Board that the Consolidated Edison Company of New York and its affiliated companies were interfering with the right of their employees to form, join or assist labor organizations of their own choosing and were contributing financial and other support, in the manner described, to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor. The Board issued its complaint and the employing companies, appearing specially, challenged its jurisdiction. On the denial of their request that this question be determined initially, the companies filed answers reserving their jurisdictional objections. After the taking of evidence before a trial examiner, the proceeding was transferred to the Board, which on November 10, 1937, made its findings and order.
The order directed the companies to desist from labor practices found to be unfair and in violation of § 8 (1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act,
It appeared that between May 28, 1937, and June 16, 1937, the companies had entered into agreements with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and its local unions, providing for the recognition of the Brotherhood as the collective bargaining agency for those employees who were its members, and containing various stipulations as to hours, working conditions, wages, etc., and for arbitration in the event of disputes. The Board found that these contracts were executed under such circumstances that they were invalid and required the companies to desist from giving them effect. Id. At the same time the Board decided that the companies had not engaged in unfair labor practices within the meaning of § 8 (2) of the Act.
The companies petitioned the Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside the order and a petition for the same purpose was presented by the Brotherhood and its locals. These labor organizations had not been parties to the proceeding before the Board but intervened in the Court of Appeals as parties aggrieved by the invalidation of their contracts. The Board in turn asked the court to enforce the order. The United Electrical and Radio Workers of America appeared in support of the Board. The court granted the Board's petition. 95 F.2d 390. We issued writs of certiorari upon applications of the companies (No. 19) and of the Brotherhood and its locals (No. 25).
The pertinent facts will be considered in connection with our discussion of these questions.
First. The jurisdiction of the Board. — That is, was the proceeding within the scope of its authority validly conferred? The petitioning companies constitute an integrated system. With the exception of one company which maintains underground ducts for electrical conductors in New York City, they are all public utilities engaged in supplying electric energy, gas and steam (and certain by-products) within that City and adjacent Westchester County. The enterprise is one of great magnitude. The companies serve over 3,500,000 electric and gas customers, — a large majority using the service for residential and domestic purposes. In 1936 the companies supplied about 97.5 per cent. of the total electric energy sold in the City of New York and about one hundred per cent. of that sold in Westchester County. They do not sell for resale without the State. They have about 42,000 employees, their total payrolls in 1936, with retirement annuities and separation allowances, amounting to nearly $82,000,000.
Petitioners urge that these predominant intrastate activities, carried on under the plenary control of the State of New York in the exercise of its police power, are not subject to federal authority. It does not follow, however, because these operations of the utilities are of vast concern to the people of the City and State of New York, that they do not also involve the interests of interstate and foreign commerce in such a degree that the Federal
In the present instance we may lay on one side, as did the Circuit Court of Appeals, the mere purchases by the utilities of the supplies of oil, coal, etc., although very large, which come from without the State and are consumed in the generation and distribution of electric energy and gas. Apart from those purchases, there is undisputed and impressive evidence of the dependence of interstate and foreign commerce upon the continuity of the service of the petitioning companies. They supply electric energy to the New York Central Railroad Company, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company (operating a tunnel service to New Jersey) for the lighting and operation of passenger and freight terminals, and for the movement of interstate trains. They supply the Port of New York Authority with electric energy for the operation of its terminal and the Holland Tunnel. They supply a majority of the piers of transatlantic and coastwise steamship companies along the North and East Rivers, within the City of New York, for lighting, freight handling and related uses. They serve the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Postal Telegraph Company, and the New York Telephone Company
It cannot be doubted that these activities, while conducted within the State, are matters of federal concern. In their totality they rise to such a degree of importance that the fact that they involve but a small part of the entire service rendered by the utilities in their extensive business is immaterial in the consideration of the existence of the federal protective power. The effect upon interstate and foreign commerce of an interruption through industrial strife of the service of the petitioning companies was vividly described by the Circuit Court of Appeals in these words: "Instantly, the terminals and trains of three great interstate railroads would cease to operate; interstate communication by telegraph, telephone, and radio would stop; lights maintained as aids to navigation would go out; and the business of interstate ferries and of foreign steamships, whose docks are lighted and operated by electric energy, would be greatly impeded. Such effects we cannot regard as indirect and remote." 95 F.2d 390, 394.
If industrial strife due to unfair labor practices actually brought about such a catastrophe, we suppose that no one would question the authority of the Federal Government to intervene in order to facilitate the settlement of the dispute and the resumption of the essential service to interstate
Congress did not attempt to deal with particular instances. It created for that purpose the National Labor Relations Board. In conferring authority upon that Board, Congress had regard to the limitations of the constitutional grant of federal power. Thus, the "commerce" contemplated by the Act (aside from that within a Territory or the District of Columbia) is interstate and foreign commerce. The unfair labor practices which the Act purports to reach are those affecting that commerce. § 10 (a).
Petitioners urge that the legislature of New York has enacted comprehensive and adequate measures to protect against the interruption of petitioners' services through labor disputes. Not only has the State long had legislation relating to the operations of public utility companies (Public Service Law) but the legislature has recently enacted the New York State Labor Relations
In the instant case, not only was this proceeding instituted before the New York Labor Relations Act became effective but, so far as appears, no proceedings have been taken under it in relation to the unfair labor practices here alleged. For the present purpose, it is sufficient to say that there has been no exertion of state authority which can be taken to remove the need for the exertion of federal authority to protect interstate and foreign commerce. The exercise of the federal power to protect interstate and foreign commerce from injury does not depend upon a clash with state action and need not await the exercise of state authority.
We conclude that the Board had authority to entertain this proceeding against the petitioning companies.
Second. The fairness of the hearing, — procedural due process. — Apart from the action of the Board with respect to the Brotherhood contracts, which we shall consider separately, the contentions under this head relate (1) to amendments of the complaint, (2) to the refusal to hear certain witnesses, and (3) to the transfer of the proceeding to the Board and its determination without an intermediate report or opportunity for hearing upon proposed findings.
The original complaint related to the discharge of five employees and alleged unfair labor practices in the employment of industrial spies and undercover operatives, in allowing employees to solicit membership in the Brotherhood during working hours and on the property of the companies, in compensating such employees while so engaged and in furnishing them office space and financial assistance while refusing such privileges to the United, and generally in coercion of the employees to join the
A more serious question grows out of the refusal to receive the testimony of certain witnesses. The taking of evidence began on June 3, 1937, and was continued from time to time until June 23d when the attorney for the Board unexpectedly announced that its case would probably be closed on the following day. At that time the Board completed its proof, with the reservation of one matter, and at the request of the companies' counsel the hearing was adjourned until July 6th in order that Mr. Carlisle, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Consolidated Edison Company, and Mr. Dean, the vice president of one of its affiliates, who were then unavailable, could testify. In response to the examiner's inquiry, the companies' counsel stated that the direct examination of all witnesses on their behalf would not occupy more than a day. On July 6th the testimony of Mr. Carlisle and Mr. Dean was taken and the companies also offered the testimony of two other witnesses (then present in the hearing room) in relation to the discharge of the employee with respect to whom the complaint had been amended as above stated. The examiner refused to receive this testimony following a ruling of the Board (made in the
We agree with the Court of Appeals that the refusal to receive the testimony was unreasonable and arbitrary. Assuming, as the Board contends, that it had a discretionary control over the conduct of the proceeding, we cannot but regard this action as an abuse of discretion. But the statute did not leave the petitioners without remedy. The court below pointed to that remedy, that is, to apply to the Court of Appeals for leave to adduce the additional evidence; on such an application and a showing of reasonable grounds the court could have ordered it to be taken. § 10 (e) (f).
Shortly after the evidence was closed, the counsel for the petitioning companies filed a brief with the trial examiner. Several weeks later, on September 29th, the proceeding was transferred to the Board. The examiner made no tentative report or findings and there was no opportunity for a hearing before the Board itself. It must be assumed, however, that the brief for the companies was transmitted to the Board and was considered by it in making its decision. The Board contends that the companies submitted their brief without asking for an oral argument, as contemplated by the Board's rule (Rule 29), or for an intermediate report, and hence that they are not in a position to complain on either score.
It cannot be said that the Board did not consider the evidence or the petitioners' brief or failed to make its own findings in the light of that evidence and argument. It would have been better practice for the Board to have directed the examiner to make a tentative report with an opportunity for exceptions and argument thereon. But, aside from the question of the Brotherhood contracts, we find no basis for concluding that the issues and contentions were not clearly defined and that the petitioning companies were not fully advised of them. National Labor Relations Board v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333, 350, 351. The points raised as to the lack
Third. The sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings of the Board with respect to coercive practices discrimination and discharge of employees. — The companies contend that the Court of Appeals misconceived its power to review the findings and, instead of searching the record to see if they were sustained by "substantial" evidence, merely considered whether the record was "wholly barren of evidence" to support them. We agree that the statute, in providing that "the findings of the Board as to the facts, if supported by evidence, shall be conclusive," means supported by substantial evidence. Washington, V. & M. Coach Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 301 U.S. 142, 147. Substantial evidence is more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Appalachian Electric Power Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 93 F.2d 985, 989; National Labor Relations Board v. Thompson Products, 97 F.2d 13, 15; Ballston-Stillwater Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 98 F.2d 758, 760. We do not think that the Court of Appeals intended to apply a different test. In saying that the record was not "wholly barren of evidence" to sustain the finding of discrimination, we think that the court referred to substantial evidence. Ballston-Stillwater Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, supra.
The companies urge that the Board received "remote hearsay" and "mere rumor." The statute provides that "the rules of evidence prevailing in courts of law and equity shall not be controlling."
Applying these principles, we are unable to conclude that the Board's findings in relation to the matters now under consideration did not have the requisite foundation. With respect to industrial espionage, the companies say that the employment of "outside investigating agencies" of any sort had been voluntarily discontinued prior to November, 1936, but the Board rightly urges that it was entitled to bar its resumption. Compare Federal Trade Comm'n v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 304 U.S. 257, 260. In relation to the other charges of unfair labor practices, the companies point to the statement of Mr. Carlisle at a large meeting of the employees in April, 1937, when the recognition of the Brotherhood was under discussion, that the employees were absolutely free to join any labor organization, — that they could do as they pleased. Despite this statement and assuming, as counsel for the companies urges, that where two independent labor organizations seek recognition, it cannot be said to be an unfair labor practice for the employer merely to express preference of one organization over the other, by reason of the former's announced policies, in the absence of any attempts at intimidation or coercion, we think that there was still substantial evidence that such attempts were made in this case.
Fourth. The Brotherhood contracts. — The findings of the Board that the contracts with the Brotherhood and its locals were invalid, and the Board's order requiring the companies to desist from giving effect to these contracts, present questions of major importance. We approach them in the light of three cardinal considerations. One is that the Brotherhood and its locals are labor organizations
The Brotherhood and its locals contend that they were indispensable parties and that in the absence of legal notice to them or their appearance, the Board had no authority to invalidate the contracts. The Board contests this position, invoking our decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, 303 U.S. 261.
The Board urges that the National Labor Relations Act does not contain any provision requiring these unions to be made parties; that § 10(b)
The Board urges further that the unions have availed themselves of the opportunity to petition for review of the Board's order in the Court of Appeals, and that due process does not require an opportunity to be heard before judgment, if defenses may be presented upon appeal. York v. Texas, 137 U.S. 15, 20, 21; American Surety Co. v. Baldwin, 287 U.S. 156, 168; Moore Ice Cream Co. v. Rose, 289 U.S. 373, 384. But this rule assumes that the appellate review does afford opportunity to present all available defenses, including lack of proper notice, to justify the judgment or order complained of. Id.
Apart from this question of notice to the unions, both the companies and the unions contend that upon the case made before the Board it had no authority to invalidate the contracts. Both insist that that issue was not actually litigated, and the record supports that contention. The argument to the contrary, that the contracts
Further, the Act gives no express authority to the Board to invalidate contracts with independent labor organizations. That authority, if it exists, must rest upon the provisions of § 10 (c).
The power to command affirmative action is remedial, not punitive, and is to be exercised in aid of the Board's authority to restrain violations and as a means of removing or avoiding the consequences of violation where those consequences are of a kind to thwart the purposes of the Act. The continued existence of a company union established by unfair labor practices or of a union dominated by the employer is a consequence of violation of the Act whose continuance thwarts the purposes of the Act and renders ineffective any order restraining the unfair practices. Compare National Labor Relations Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, supra. Here, there is no basis for a finding that the contracts with the Brotherhood and its locals were a consequence of the unfair labor practices found by the Board or that these contracts in themselves thwart any policy of the Act or that their cancellation would in any way make the order to cease the specified practices any more effective.
The Act contemplates the making of contracts with labor organizations. That is the manifest objective in providing for collective bargaining. Under § 7.
The Board insists that the contracts are invalid because made during the pendency of the proceeding. But the effect of that pendency would appropriately extend to the practices of the employers to which the complaint was addressed. See Jones v. Securities & Exchange Comm'n, 298 U.S. 1, 15. It did not reach so far as to suspend
Apart from this, the main contention of the Board is that the contracts were the fruit of the unfair labor practices of the employers; that they were "simply a device to consummate and perpetuate" the companies' illegal conduct and constituted its culmination. But, as we have said, this conclusion is entirely too broad to be sustained. If the Board intended to make that charge, it should have amended its complaint accordingly, given notice to the Brotherhood, and introduced proof to sustain the charge. Instead it is left as a matter of mere conjecture to what extent membership in the Brotherhood was induced by any illegal conduct on the part of the employers. The Brotherhood was entitled to form its locals and their organization was not assailed. The Brotherhood and its locals were entitled to solicit members and the employees were entitled to join. These rights cannot be brushed aside as immaterial for they are of the very essence of the rights which the Labor Relations Act was passed to protect and the Board could not ignore or override them in professing to effectuate the policies of the Act. To say that of the 30,000 who did join there were not those who joined voluntarily or that the Brotherhood did not have members whom it could properly represent in making these contracts would be to indulge an extravagant and unwarranted assumption. The employers' practices, which were complained of, could be stopped without imperiling the interests of those who for all that appears had exercised freely their right of choice.
We conclude that the Board was without authority to require the petitioning companies to desist from giving effect to the Brotherhood contracts, as provided in subdivision (f) of paragraph one of the Board's order.
The provision of paragraph two of the order as to posting notices should be modified so as to exclude any requirement to post a notice that the existing Brotherhood contracts have been abrogated.
The decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals is modified so as to hold unenforceable the provision of subdivision (f) of paragraph one of the order and the application to that provision of paragraph two subdivision (c), and as so modified the decree enforcing the order of the Board is affirmed.
Modified and affirmed.
Opinion of MR. JUSTICE BUTLER.
I agree with the Court's decision that the Board was without authority to require employers to cease and desist from giving effect to the contracts referred to in
The Board was without jurisdiction. The facts on which it assumed to exert power need not be narrated; they are sufficiently stated by the lower court and in the opinion here. Both courts rightly treat the case as one where neither employers nor employees are engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. Here, the employers are engaged solely in intrastate activities. A very small percentage of the products, furnished in that State to others, is by the latter used in interstate commerce. This Court has held that Congress cannot regulate relations between employers and employees engaged exclusively in intrastate activities.
In Schechter Corp. v. United States (May, 1935), 295 U.S. 495, decided shortly before passage of the National Labor Relations Act, we held that the federal government cannot regulate the wages and hours of labor of persons employed in the internal commerce of the State.
In Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (May, 1936), 298 U.S. 238, decided shortly after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, we held that provisions of the Bituminous Coal Conservation Act of 1935 looking to the control of wages, hours, and working conditions of persons engaged in producing coal about to move in interstate commerce and seeking to guarantee their right of collective bargaining, were beyond the power of Congress, for the reasons that it has no general power of regulation to promote the general welfare; that the power to regulate commerce does not include the power to control the conditions in which coal is produced; that the effect upon interstate commerce of labor conditions involved in the production of coal, including disputes and strikes over wages and working conditions, is indirect.
In the period, less than a year, intervening between the Carter case and Labor Board v. Jones & Laughlin (April, 1937), 301 U.S. 1, and other Labor Board cases
This case is not distinguishable from the Schechter case or the Carter case. There, as here, the activities of the employers and their employees were exclusively local. It differs from the Jones & Laughlin case and all the other Labor Board cases.
These cases give no support to the idea that, in absence of conflict between state and federal policy or regulation,
In 1906 and 1907, Minnesota reduced intrastate rates substantially below lawfully established interstate rates. Suits were brought by their stockholders to restrain the carriers from obeying, and state officers from enforcing, the local rates on the ground, inter alia, that they were repugnant to the commerce clause and that enforcement would necessarily interfere with and burden interstate transportation by the carriers. The Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U.S. 352. The controversy was everywhere regarded as important. See p. 395. The facts found by the special master and adopted by the circuit court are stated in its opinion (Shepard v. Northern Pacific Ry. Co. (1911), 184 F. 765, 775-794) and summarized in the opinion of this Court. pp. 381-395. They show that the intrastate rates discriminated against interstate commerce and made it impossible for the carriers to collect, or for the United States to enforce, valid higher interstate rates. The trial court held the state measures repugnant to the commerce clause and upon that ground, among others, enjoined enforcement of the rates they prescribed.
The cases were argued here in April, 1912, and decided June 9, 1913. This Court upheld the state rates, notwithstanding the commerce clause, the Act to Regulate Commerce, the interstate rates lawfully established in accordance with federal law, and the destructive discrimination. It held that, in the absence of a finding by the Interstate Commerce Commission of unjust discrimination,
That case was pending here before the decision in the Minnesota Rate Cases, and was decided in June, 1914. The Interstate Commerce Commission had found that rates prescribed by Texas operated to discriminate against interstate traffic from Shreveport, Louisiana, into Texas moving on lawfully established interstate rates. In order to eliminate the discrimination, the Commission directed the carriers to cease charging higher rates for interstate transportation than those charged for transportation between Texas points. This Court held the carriers free to raise the intrastate rates so as to remove the discrimination.
Wisconsin Railroad Comm'n v. Chicago, B. & Q.R. Co. (1922), 257 U.S. 563, upheld § 15a of the Interstate Commerce Act, added by § 422, Transportation Act, 1920, which empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to remove discrimination resulting from intrastate rates unduly low, as compared with corresponding rates fixed under that section.
New York v. United States, 257 U.S. 591, held that intrastate rates so low that they discriminated against interstate commerce within the meaning of the Transportation Act, 1920, may constitutionally be increased under that Act by the Commission to conform with like rates in interstate commerce fixed by it.
The constitutional questions decided in these three cases were essentially different from the one of federal power here presented. The state measures there overborne were repugnant to existing federal regulations of interstate commerce. Application of the lower state rates made it impossible for federal authority to require, or to enable,
MR. JUSTICE McREYNOLDS concurs in this opinion.
MR. JUSTICE REED concurring in part, dissenting in part.
While concurring in general with the conclusions of the Court in this case, I find myself in disagreement with the conclusion that the National Labor Relations Board was "without authority to require the petitioning companies
"I. Cease and desist from:
.....
(f) Giving effect to their contracts with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers."
It is agreed that the "fundamental purpose of the Act is to protect interstate and foreign commerce from interruptions and obstructions caused by industrial strife." This is to be accomplished by contracts with labor organizations, reached through collective bargaining. The labor organizations in turn are to be created through the self-organization of workers, free from interference, restraint or coercion of the employer.
It is assumed that the terms of these contracts in all respects are consistent with the requirements of the National Labor Relations Act and are in themselves, considered apart from the actions of the Edison companies in securing their execution, advantageous in preserving industrial harmony.
The evidence upon which this finding is based is summarized in detail in 4 N.L.R.B., pages 83 to 94. It shows a consistent effort on the part of the officers and foremen of the Edison Company and its affiliates, as well as other employees of the Edison companies — formerly officers in the recently disestablished "Employees' Representation Plans," actually company unions — to further the development of the I.B.E.W. unions by recognition, contracts for bargaining, openly expressed approval,
This determination set in motion the authority of the Board to issue an order to cease and desist from the unfair labor practice and to take "such affirmative action . . . as will effectuate the policies of this Act." The evidence was clearly sufficient to support the conclusion of the Board that the Edison companies entered into the contracts as an integral part of a plan for coercion of and interference with the self-organization of their employees. This justified the Board's prohibition against giving effect to the contracts. The "affirmative action" must be connected with the unfair practices but there could be no question as to the materiality of the contracts. As this Court, only recently, said, as to the purpose of the Congress in enacting this Act:
"It had before it the Railway Clerks case which had emphasized the importance of union recognition in securing collective bargaining, Report of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, S. Rep. 573, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 17, and there were then available data showing that once an employer has conferred recognition on a particular organization it has a marked advantage over any other in securing the adherence of employees, and hence in preventing the recognition of any other."
To this, it is answered that the extent of the coercion is left to "mere conjecture"; that it would be an "extravagant"
The petitioners, however, aside from the merits, raise procedural objections. It is contended that before the Board could have authority to order the Edison companies to cease and desist from giving effect to their contracts with the unions, it was necessary that the unions as well as the Edison companies should have legal notice or should appear; that the unions were indispensable parties. This Court has held to the contrary in Labor Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, 303 U.S. 261.
A further procedural objection is found in the failure of the complaint, or any of its amendments, to seek specifically a cease and desist order against continued operation under the contracts. The companies were charged with allowing organization meetings on the company time and on company property, permitting solicitation
Certainly the Edison companies and the contracting unions could have been allowed on a proper showing a further hearing on the question of the companies' continuing recognition of the contracts. By § 10(f) the Edison companies and the unions could obtain a review of the Board's order. In that hearing either or both could show to the court, § 10(e), that additional evidence as to the contracts was material and that it had not been presented because the aggrieved parties had not understood that the contracts were subject to a cease and desist order, or had not known of the proceeding. The court could order the Board to take the additional evidence. This simple practice was not followed. Although all parties were before the lower court on the review, the petitioners chose to rely on the impotency of the Board to enter an order affecting the contracts.
In these circumstances the provision of the order requiring the Edison companies to cease from giving effect to their contracts with the contracting unions is proper. This order prevents the Edison companies from reaping an advantage from those acts of interference found illegal by the Board.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK concurs in this opinion.
FootNotes
"Sec. 37. Whenever the Board deems it necessary in order to effectuate the purposes of the Act, it may permit a charge to be filed with it, in Washington, D.C., or may, at any time after a charge has been filed with a Regional Director pursuant to Section 2 of this Article, order that such charge, and any proceeding which may have been instituted in respect thereto —
"The provisions of Sections 3 to 31, inclusive, of this Article shall, in so far as applicable, apply to proceedings before the Board pursuant to this Section, and the powers granted to Regional Directors in such provisions shall, for the purpose of this Section, be reserved to and exercised by the Board. After the transfer of any charge and any proceeding which may have been instituted in respect thereto from one Region to another pursuant to this Section, the provisions of Sections 3 to 36, inclusive, of this Article, shall apply to such charge and such proceeding as if the charge had originally been filed in the Region to which the transfer is made.
"Sec. 38. After a hearing for the purpose of taking evidence upon the complaint in any proceeding over which the Board has assumed jurisdiction in accordance with Section 37 of this Article, the Board may —
"The Board shall notify the parties of the time and place of any such submission of briefs, oral argument, or taking of further evidence."
Comment
User Comments