National Labor Relations Board v. Murray Products, Inc.

This is an application by the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) for enforcement of its order finding Murray Products, Inc. (the Company) guilty of unfair labor practices under sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act). In its decision and order, reported at 228 N.L.R.B. 268 (1977), the Board found that the Company had discriminatorily refused to reinstate nine striking employees when they unconditionally applied for reinstatement. In partial reversal of the Administrative Law Judge, a divided Board also found that the Company’s offers of reinstatement made within the two weeks following the strikers’ application were invalid. The Board ordered backpay from the date of the employees’ reinstatement application until the date when valid offers of reinstatement were made, a period of some two months.

Murray Products, Inc., located in Orange, California, manufactures plastic laminated countertops and bars and is an employer engaged in commerce. Norman Murray is president of the Company; his sons Kenneth and William are secretary-treasurer and vice-president, respectively. In March, 1975, a majority of the Company’s employees chose the Orange…