Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/380/263/case.php
Timestamp: 2017-12-16 07:25:48
Document Index: 81302617

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 7', '§ 8', '§ 8']

In March, 1956, petitioner Textile Workers Union initiated an organizational campaign at Darlington which the company resisted vigorously in various ways, including threats to close the mill if the union won a representation election. [Footnote 3] On September 6, 1956, the union won an chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The union filed charges with the Labor Board claiming that Darlington had violated §§ 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act by closing its plant, [Footnote 4] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and § 8(a)(5) by refusing to bargain with the union after the election. [Footnote 5] The Board, by a divided vote, found that Darlington had been closed because of the anti-union animus of Roger Milliken, and held that to be a violation of § 8(a)(3). [Footnote 6] The Board also found Darlington to be part of a single integrated employer group controlled by the Milliken family through Deering Milliken; therefore Deering Milliken could be held liable for the unfair labor practices of Darlington. [Footnote 7] Alternatively, since Darlington was a part of the Deering Milliken enterprise, Deering Milliken had violated the Act by closing part of its business for a discriminatory purpose. The Board ordered back pay for all Darlington employees until they obtained substantially equivalent work or were put on preferential hiring lists at the other Deering Milliken mills. Respondent Deering Milliken was ordered to bargain with the union in regard to details of compliance with the Board order. 139 N.L.R.B. 241. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Preliminarily it should be observed that both petitioners argue that the Darlington closing violated § 8(a)(1) as well as § 8(a)(3) of the Act. We think, however, that the Board was correct in treating the closing only under § 8(a)(3). [Footnote 8] Section 8(a)(1) provides that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer "to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of" § 7 rights. [Footnote 9] Naturally, certain business decisions will, to some chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We consider first the argument, advanced by the petitioner union but not by the Board, and rejected by the Court of Appeals, that an employer may not go completely out of business without running afoul of the Labor Relations Act if such action is prompted by a desire to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The courts of appeals have generally assumed that a complete cessation of business will remove an employer chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
325 F.2d 685. The Eighth Circuit, in Labor Board v. New Madrid Mfg. Co., 215 F.2d 908, 914, was equally explicit:
One of the purposes of the Labor Relations Act is to prohibit the discriminatory use of economic weapons in an effort to obtain future benefits. The discriminatory lockout designed to destroy a union, like a "runaway shop," is a lever which has been used to discourage collective employee activities chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We are not presented here with the case of a "runaway shop," [Footnote 16] whereby Darlington would transfer its chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
work to another plant or open a new plant in another locality to replace its closed plant. [Footnote 17] Nor are we concerned with a shutdown where the employees, by renouncing the union, could cause the plant to reopen. [Footnote 18] Such cases would involve discriminatory employer action for the purpose of obtaining some benefit in the future from the employees in the future. [Footnote 19] We hold here only that, when chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The closing of an entire business, even though discriminatory, ends the employer-employee relationship; the force of such a closing is entirely spent as to that business when termination of the enterprise takes place. On the other hand, a discriminatory partial closing may have chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
While we have spoken in terms of a "partial closing" in the context of the Board's finding that Darlington was part of a larger single enterprise controlled by the Milliken family, we do not mean to suggest that an organizational integration of plants or corporations is a necessary prerequisite to the establishment of such a violation of § 8(a)(3). If the persons exercising control over a plant that is being closed for anti-union reasons (1) have an interest in another business, whether or not affiliated with or engaged in the same line of commercial activity as the closed plant, of sufficient substantiality to give promise of their reaping a benefit from the discouragement of unionization in that business; (2) act to close their plant with the purpose of producing such a result; and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Thus, the Board's findings as to the purpose and foreseeable effect of the Darlington closing pertained only to its impact on the Darlington employees. No findings were made as to the purpose and effect of the closing with respect to the employees in the other plants comprising the Deering Milliken group. It does not suffice to establish the unfair labor practice charged here to argue that the Darlington closing necessarily had an adverse impact upon unionization in such other plants. We have heretofore observed that employer action which has a foreseeable consequence of discouraging concerted activities generally [Footnote 22] does not amount to a violation of § 8(a)(3) in the absence of a showing of motivation which is aimed at achieving the prohibited effect. See Teamsters v. Labor Board, 365 U. S. 667, and the concurring opinion therein, at 365 U. S. 677. In an area which trenches so closely upon otherwise legitimate employer prerogatives, we consider the absence of Board findings on this score a fatal defect in its decision. The Court of Appeals, for its part, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary