International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, Industrial Products Division v. National Labor Relations Board

This petition for review of a final order of the National Labor Relations Board and cross-petition for enforcement raise the question of whether or not a company employer can defend an unfair labor practice charge for failing to bargain collectively by asserting that the employee representative was not validly elected in that two employees, through company inadvertence, were not given an opportunity to vote during their working hours as were other employees, where the votes of these two employees could have affected the outcome of the election.

The NLRB held that the defense was without merit. We think that the NLRB did not abuse its discretionary power.

The facts are as follows: Two unions, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), sought to represent the same unit of employees. An election was planned between the contesting unions, and a third choice of no union. Pursuant to NLRB practice, the company submitted a list of employees eligible to vote to the NLRB representative. The company failed to include in this list two janitorial workers who worked…