Source: https://m.openjurist.org/404/us/157
Timestamp: 2020-01-26 01:10:42
Document Index: 511693861

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1395', '§ 151', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 158', '§ 9', '§ 159', '§ 152', '§ 2', '§ 302', '§ 186', '§ 302', '§ 302', '§ 159', '§ 10', '§ 160', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 7', '§ 158', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 142', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 302', '§ 158', '§ 152', '§ 8']

404 US 157 Allied Chemical Alkali Workers of America Local Union No v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Chemical Division | OpenJurist
404 U.S. 157 - Allied Chemical Alkali Workers of America Local Union No v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Chemical Division
404 US 157 Allied Chemical Alkali Workers of America Local Union No v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Chemical Division
92 S.Ct. 383
30 L.Ed.2d 341
ALLIED CHEMICAL & ALKALI WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL UNION NO. 1, Petitioner,
PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS COMPANY, CHEMICAL DIVISION, et al. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS COMPANY, CHEMICAL DIVISION, et al.
Decided Dec. 8, 1971.
In November 1965, Medicare, a national health program, was enacted, 79 Stat. 291, 42 U.S.C. § 1395 et seq. The 1964 contract was still in effect, and the Union sought mid-term bargaining to renegotiate insurance benefits for retired employees. The Company responded in March 1966 that, in its view, Medicare rendered the health insurance program useless because of a non-duplication-of-benefits provision in the Company's insurance policy, and stated, without negotiating any change, that it was planning to (a) reclaim the additional two-dollar monthly contribution as of the effective date of Medicare; (b) cancel the program for retirees; and (c) substitute the payment of the three-dollar monthly subscription fee for supplemental Medicare coverage for each retired employee.5
Section 1 of the National Labor Relations Act declares the policy of the United States to protect commerce 'by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment * * *.' 49 Stat. 449, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 151. To effectuate this policy, § 8(a)(5) provides that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer 'to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of his employees, subject to the provisions of section' 9(a). 49 Stat. 453, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(5). Section 8(d), in turn, defines 'to bargain collectively' as 'the performance of the mutual obligation of the employer and the representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment * * *.' 61 Stat. 142, 29 U.S.C. § 158(d). Finally, § 9(a) declares: 'Representatives designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes, shall be the exclusive representatives of all the employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment * * *.' 49 Stat. 453, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 159(a).
'The term 'employee' shall include any employee, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless this subchapter explicitly states otherwise, and shall include any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment * * *.' 49 Stat. 450, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 152(3).
The decisions on which the Board relied in construing § 2(3) to the contrary are wide of the mark. The Board enumerated 'unfair labor practice situations where the statute has been applied to persons who have not been initially hired by an employer or whose employment has terminated. Illustrative are cases in which the Board has held that applicants for employment and registrants at hiring halls—who have never been hired in the first place—as well as persons who have quit or whose employers have gone out of business are 'employees' embraced by the policies of the Act.' 177 N.L.R.B., at 913 (citations omitted). Yet all of these cases involved people who, unlike the pensioners here, were members of the active work force available for hire and at least in that sense could be identified as 'employees.' No decision under the Act is cited, and none to our knowledge exists, in which an individual who has ceased work without expectation of further employment has been held to be an 'employee.' The Board also found support for its position in decisions arising under § 302(c)(5) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 61 Stat. 157, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c)(5). Section 302 prohibits, inter alia, any payment by an employer to any representative of any of his employees. Subsection (c)(5) provides an exemption for payments to an employee trust fund established 'for the sole and exclusive benefit of the employees of such employer' and administered by equal numbers of representatives of the employer and employees. The word 'employee,' as used in that provision, has been construed to include 'current employees and persons who were * * * current employees but are now retired.' Blassie v. Kroger Co., 345 F.2d 58, 70 (CA8 1965).8 The Board considered that it would be anomalous to hold 'that retired employees are not 'employees' whose ongoing benefits are fit subjects of bargaining under Section 8(a)(5), while under (§ 302(c)) they are 'employees' for the purpose of administering the same health insurance benefits. It would create the further anomaly that a union would not be entitled to act as the representative of retired employees under Section 8(a)(5), while subject to an explicit statutory duty to act as their representative under (§ 302(c)).' 177 N.L.R.B., at 915.9
Second. Section 9(a) of the Labor Relations Act accords representative status only to the labor organization selected or designated by the majority of employees in a 'unit appropriate' 'for the purposes of collective bargaining.' Section 9(b) goes on to direct the Labor Board to 'decide in each case whether, in order to assure to employees the fullest freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by this subchapter, the unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining shall be the employer unit, craft unit, plant unit, or subdivision thereof * * *.' 49 Stat. 453, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 159(b). We have always recognized that, in making these determinations, the Board is accorded broad discretion. See National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, 322 U.S., at 132—135, 64 S.Ct., at 861—862; Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 146, 61 S.Ct. 908, 85 L.Ed. 1251 (1941). Moreover, the Board's findings of fact, if supported by substantial evidence, are conclusive. National Labor Relations Act, § 10(e), 49 Stat. 454, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 160(e). But the Board's powers in respect of unit determinations are not without limits, and if its decision 'oversteps the law,' Packard Motor Car Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 330 U.S., at 491, 67 S.Ct., at 793, it must be reversed.
The Board found that the Company had violated not only § 8(a)(5) but § 8(a)(1), and the Board framed its cease-and-desist order accordingly. Section 8(a)(1) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer 'to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in' § 7, which include 'the right to self-organization * * * (and) to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing * * *.' 49 Stat. 452, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1), 157. However, the § 8(a)(1) violation derives from the alleged § 8(a)(5) misconduct and, therefore, presents no separate issues.
See also Garvison v. Jensen, 355 F.2d 487 (CA9 1966); Local No. 688, Int') Bro. of Teamsters v. Townsend, 345 F.2d 77 (CA8 1965). Section 501(3) of the Labor Management Relations Act provides that the term 'employee' as used in that legislation has the same meaning as when used in the National Labor Relations Act. 61 Stat. 161, 29 U.S.C. § 142(3).
are in fact paid and administered in accordance with the terms and intent of their contracts * * *.' 177 N.L.R.B., at 915. That interest is undeniable. But Congress has specifically established a remedy for breaches of collective-bargaining agreements in § 301 of the Labor Managment Relations Act. 61 Stat. 156, 29 U.S.C. § 185. See, e.g., Upholsterers' Int'l, Union of North America, AFL-CIO v. American Pad & Textile Co., 372 F.2d 427 (CA6 1967). Similarly, Congress has expressly provided for employee representation in the administration of trust funds under § 302(c)(5) of that Act. In any event, the question presented is not whether retirement rights are enforceable, but whether they are subject to compulsory bargaining.
'The duties imposed upon employers, employees, and labor organizations by paragraphs (2)—(4) of this subsection shall become inapplicable upon an intervening certification of the Board, under which the labor organization or individual, which is a party to the contract, has been superseded as or ceased to be the representative of the employees subject to the provisions of section 159(a) of this title, and the duties so imposed shall not be contrued as requiring either party to discuss or agree to any modification of the terms and conditions contained in a contract for a fixed period, if such modification is to become effective before such terms and conditions can be reopened under the provisions of the contract. Any employee who engages in a strike within the sixty-day period specified in this subsection shall lose his status as an employee of the employer engaged in the particular labor dispute, for the purposes of sections 158—160 of this title, but such loss of status for such employee shall terminate if and when he is reemployed by such employer.' 29 U.S.C. § 158(d).
The notification required by paragraph (3) is 'of the existence of a dispute.' Section 2(9) of the Act defines 'labor dispute' to include 'any controversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment * * *.' 49 Stat. 450, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 152(9). Since controversies over permissive terms are excluded from the definition, a paragraph (3) notice might not be required in the case of a proposed modification to such a term even if § 8(d) applied.