On March 6, 1940, the National Labor Relations Board, on finding that the Donnelly Garment Company had engaged in labor practices condemned as 'unfair' by the Wagner Act, issued an order against the Company 'to effectuate the policies' of the Act. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit denied enforcement of the order and remanded the case to the Board. 123 F.2d 215. After carrying out what it conceived to be the directions of the Court the Board again found against the Company. The Court below denied enforcement of the Board's second order 'for want of due process in the proceedings upon which the order is based.' 8 Cir., 151 F.2d 854, 875. The correctness of this ruling is now before us, for we brought the case here, 327 U.S. 775, 66 S.Ct. 958, to rule on important issues in the administration of the Wagner Act. This protracted litigation has given rise to a swarm of questions. In view of the fact that the case comes to us after it has been twice before the Board and three times before the court below, on a record of thirteen volumes with a total of more than 5000 pages, even an earnest attempt at compactness cannot avoid a somewhat extended opinion.
The case presents limited legal phases of one of those bitter, unedifying conflicts with which American industrial history is unfortunately replete. For other litigation growing out of this strife, see D.C., 20 F.Supp. 767; D.C., 21 F.Supp. 807; 304 U.S. 243, 58 S.Ct. 875, 82 L.Ed. 1316, Id., D.C., 23 F.Supp. 998; 8 Cir., D.C., 99 F.2d 309; 8 Cir., 119 F.2d 892; 8 Cir., 121 F.2d 561; D.C., 47 F.Supp. 61; Donnelly Garment Co. v. Dubinsky, D.C., 47 F.Supp. 65; 47 F.Supp. 67; Donnelly Garment Co. v. International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, D.C., 55 F.Supp. 572; Donnelly Garment Co. v. Dubinsky, D.C., 55 F.Supp. 587; Donnelly Garment Co. v. Unternational Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, 8 Cir., 147 F.2d 246; 154 F.2d 38. It has its roots in a campaign by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (hereafter designated as International) to unionize the women's garment industry in Kansas City, Missouri. Because of its importance, the Donnelly Garment Company (to be called Company for short) became the particular target of these unionizing efforts. These continued with varying intensity over a period of years but met with little success among the Company's employees.
In 1938, International began proceedings before the Board charging the Company with a series of unfair labor practices in violation of §§ 2(6), (7) and 8(1), (2), (3) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. The main charge was that the Company, to counteract the efforts of International, had stimulated the formation of a plant union, the Donnelly Garment Workers Union (hereafter called Union) and had dominated it through financial and other aid. Following the usual procedure there was a hearing before a trial examiner. At the hearing, the Examiner rejected an offer by the Company to prove, through the testimony of 1200 employees, that they had not been coerced by the Company to join Union, but that each of them had done so of his own free will, and that they had no knowledge of Company influence in the affairs of Union. The Examiner also excluded evidence to show that the formation of the Union followed strike threats and violence by International, successful against smaller competitors of the Company, to coerce the Company into a closed-shop agreement with International. To these and other less important exclusions the Company duly excepted on the submission of the Trial Examiner's intermediate report. The Board upheld the Examiner's rulings on evidence, accepted his findings of fact, and, with a qualification not here relevant, adopted his recommendations. Thereupon it issued the usual cease-and-desist order, and directed the disestablishment of Union and reimbursement to employees of the amount of the dues which the Company had checked off on behalf of Union (21 N.L.R.B. 164).