National Labor Relations Board v. Interstate Engineering, a Division of A-T-O, Inc.

The petitioning Board’s Decision and Order is reported at 230 NLRB No. 3 (1977). The respondent employer was determined to have committed unfair labor practices, violating sections 8(a)(1) and (2) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 , et seq. Essentially, the Board upheld the factual findings of the Administrative Law Judge.

In responding to the Board’s Petition in this court, the employer argues that each of a series of letters written by various officers to company employees were not unlawful. The letters, each standing alone, may well have been protected by the employer’s rights of free speech. We cannot, however, consider the letters in isolation, as the respondent would have us do. In its brief, as in its oral argument, the respondent chose to ignore the voluminous evidence concerning intolerably coercive conduct on its part. Remarks uttered or written during campaigns of employee organizations “may or may not be coercive, depending on the context in which they are uttered. ... In order to derive the true import of these remarks, it is necessary to view the context in which they are made.” 170 NLRB No. 157 (1968). The letters must be related to…