National Labor Relations Board v. Sunset Minerals, Inc.

The National Labor Relations Board (hereafter the Board) petitions for the enforcement of an order requiring Sunset Minerals, Inc. (hereafter Respondent) to reinstate with back pay two of its employees, the Board having held their discharge to be an unfair labor practice because its purpose was to punish them for engaging in a strike to compel the respondent to cure certain grievances presented to respondent by the discharged men’s union, Local 18 of the International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers (hereafter the Union).

Respondent has attacked the findings of the Board as not being supported by the evidence. The uncontradicted facts are that the Union was the certified bargaining representative of the respondent’s employees; that the labor contract between the Union and the respondent contained a provision that “the Union shall have the right to maintain a Grievance Committee” which had not been acted upon for several years; that on May 31, 1951, respondent received from the Union a list of 16 grievances concerning working conditions; that several of the grievances were corrected the following few days; that on June 4, 1951, twenty men out of a crew of forty-four did not…