Perdue Farms, 805 (1996)

Perdue Farms, Inc. and United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 204, a/w United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC, Petitioner. Case 11- RC-6094

February 2, 1996

DECISION AND DIRECTION OF SECOND

ELECTION

BY CHAIRMAN GOULD AND MEMBERS BROWNING AND COHEN

The National Labor Relations Board has considered objections to an election held June 28, 1995 and the hearing officer's report recommending disposition of them. The election was conducted pursuant to a Stipulated Election Agreement. The tally of ballots shows 851 for and 952 against the Petitioner, with 53 challenged ballots, an insufficient number to affect the results.

The Board has reviewed the record in light of the exceptions and briefs, has adopted the hearing officer's findings1 and recommendations, and finds that the election must be set aside and a new election held.

[Direction Of Second Election omitted from pubication.]

MEMBER COHEN, dissenting.

In Sunrise Rehabilitation Hospital, 320 NLRB 212 (1995), my colleagues held that payments to off-duty

employees who would come to the facility and vote would be grounds for setting aside an election, if such payments exceeded actual transportation expenses. In so holding, my colleagues overruled established precedent to the contrary.1 I dissented in Sunrise. As set forth more fully in that dissent, I believe that the reversal of precedent was unnecessary, unwise and peremptory, i.e., done without knowledge of the relevant facts.

My colleagues now repeat their error and apply Sunrise to overturn still another election. I would apply YMCA and uphold the election. In this regard, I note that the Employer made the payments in pursuit of the goal of encouraging employees to vote. The hearing officer found that the evidence did not establish that the Employer made the offer only to employees who were perceived as likely to vote against the Union. Nor was the offer of payment coupled with an antiunion message, as it had been in YMCA.

Concededly, the payments were, in some respects, larger than those in YMCA. The payments were equivalent to 4 hours' pay; the payments in YMCA were equivalent to 2 hours' pay. However, the Employer has explained that the 4 hours of pay (approximately $27) was intended to compensate for: (1) the time of traveling back and forth from residence to polling place, a distance that is substantial in many cases; (2) the time for voting; and (3) travel expenses. There is no showing that the...