National Labor Relations Board v. Fort Vancouver Plywood Company, Fort Vancouver Plywood Company v. National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) petitions for enforcement of its order entered upon a finding that Fort Vancouver Plywood Company committed unfair labor practices. The Board ordered the company to cease certain practices, to bargain with the union, and to reinstate and compensate for lost earnings 72 former employees. Fort Vancouver Plywood cross-petitions to set the order aside.

I. FACTS

Fort Vancouver Plywood Company is a worker-owned Washington corporation. Not all workers are shareholders, however. The company has often employed nonshare-holders as fill-ins during periods of peak production or as replacements for vacationing shareholder-workers. The number of nonshareholders in the work force has varied from time to time. The Board contends that the number has ranged from 30 to 70, but concedes that it also has fallen to 2 or 3. The company claims that the figure has occasionally dropped to zero.

For reasons not material here, the employment of nonshareholders has always been a matter of contention within the company’s management. Three of the seven directors (also worker-shareholders) consistently advocated ending the employment of nonshareholders altogether.…