National Labor Relations Board v. Kent Bros. Transportation Co.

This is a petition to enforce an order of the National Labor Relations Board, issued against the respondent Gilbert Kent, under his assumed business name Kent Bros. Transportation Co. The Board found that respondent had violated Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the Labor Management Relations Act, in that he had intimidated and discharged employees because of their union activities.

Respondent raises the threshold question of whether or not the Board possessed power to make the order; he urges that his employees, whose rights were found to be violated, were “agricultural laborers,” a class expressly excluded from the purview of the Act. Respondent was not engaged in farming; he was a contract carrier by motor truck of farm produce grown by others; the employees in question were his truck drivers, who operated a part of the fleet of trucks with which he hauled such agricultural products from farm to market. Respondent’s employees were thus not “agricultural laborers.” N.L.R.B. v. Olaa Sugar Co., 242 F.2d 714 (9th Cir. 1957); N.L.R.B v. Strain Poultry-Farms, Inc., 405 F.2d 1025 (5th Cir. 1969).

Turning to the merits, we are clear that the Board’s findings are supported by…