Source: http://openjurist.org/660/f2d/406/griffith-company-v-national-labor-relations-board
Timestamp: 2017-07-27 21:22:36
Document Index: 323362800

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 302', '§ 186', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 302', '§ 186', '§ 302', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 158']

660 F2d 406 Griffith Company v. National Labor Relations Board | OpenJurist
660 F. 2d 406 - Griffith Company v. National Labor Relations Board HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 660 F.2d.
660 F2d 406 Griffith Company v. National Labor Relations Board 660 F.2d 406
108 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2943, 92 Lab.Cas. P 13,094,2 Employee Benefits Ca 2163
GRIFFITH COMPANY; J. W. Hicks Construction Co. and SecurityPaving Co., Inc., Petitioner,v.NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent,andLocal No. 12, International Union of Operating Engineers andOperating Engineers Health & Welfare Fund, et al.,Intervenors.NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner,v.INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL UNION 12, Respondent,Griffith Company et al., and Operating Engineers Health andWelfare Fund et al., Intervenors.
Nos. 79-7394, 80-7103.
Argued and Submitted May 8, 1981.Decided Oct. 26, 1981.
This case returns for appellate review having been previously remanded to the Board for further consideration. 545 F.2d 1194 (9th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 854, 98 S.Ct. 171, 54 L.Ed.2d 125 (1977). The present petition raises several issues. The primary question presented is whether the construction industry's limited exemption from hot cargo agreements, § 8(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(e), renders lawful a provision in a Master Labor Agreement which prohibits an employer from subcontracting work to any signatory subcontractor who is delinquent in required payments to a common employee fringe benefit trust. Secondary issues include: (1) whether these agreements can be enforced by economic coercion; (2) whether the union must reimburse the employers for any monies which were contributed pursuant to the contract provision; and (3) whether certain statements by the trust administrator and counsel for the fund to an employer constituted a threat by union agents to invoke the self-enforcement provision of the contract.
The agreement establishes four employee benefit trusts pursuant to § 302(c) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c)(5). Each trust is jointly administered by a Board of Trustees composed of members appointed in equal numbers by the employer groups and the union. The trust funds are managed by a hired administrator.
Griffith then filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging that paragraphs 15 and 16 were an agreement to cease doing business with another employer in violation of § 8(e)3 and that the statements by the trust officials were a threat to strike for secondary purposes in violation of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B).4 The Board held the agreement was a primary provision intended to preserve union standards or union employment and therefore rejected the complaint.
Although the 8(e) proviso exempts the construction industry from the prohibition against secondary boycott agreements, it does not exempt the industry from § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B), which forbids economic coercion to enforce such a boycott. The legislative history clearly indicates that agreements entered pursuant to § 8(e) were to be enforced judicially rather than by self-help.6 Conference Committee Report H.R.Rep.No.1147, 86th Cong., 1st Session 39, I Leg.Hist. 943; see also 105 Cong.Rec. 17,900, II Leg.Hist. 1433 (Senator Kennedy); 105 Cong.Rec. A8359, II Leg.Hist. 1830 (Senator Goldwater). This court has followed that view on numerous occasions. See e. g. Pacific-Northwest, at 1323-24; Associated General Contractors, Inc. v. NLRB, 514 F.2d 433, 438-39 (9th Cir. 1975); Acco Construction Equipment, Inc. v. NLRB, 511 F.2d 848 (9th Cir. 1975); NLRB v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 405 F.2d 159, 163-64 (9th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 395 U.S. 921, 89 S.Ct. 1772, 23 L.Ed.2d 237 (1969). Accord: Donald Schriver, Inc. v. NLRB, 635 F.2d 859, 886 (D.C.Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 976, 101 S.Ct. 2058, 68 L.Ed.2d 357 (1981); Bricklayer's Local No. 2 v. NLRB, 562 F.2d 775, 787-88 (D.C.Cir.1977); NLRB v. Muskegon Bricklayers Union, 378 F.2d 859 (6th Cir. 1967).
The Board concluded that neither the administrator nor his counsel was an agent of the union. The Board accordingly dismissed the contractor's claim that the union through its agents violated § 8(b)(4)(ii) by threatening to invoke the self-enforcement provisions of the MLA. The Board's decision is supported by substantial evidence.
Each trust was established pursuant to § 302(c) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c). That section requires the fund trustees to serve as independent fiduciaries and act solely in the interests of the beneficiaries. See Toensing v. Brown, 528 F.2d 69 (9 Cir. 1975). To ensure the independence of the trust, § 302(c)(5) requires that the employers and employees be equally represented in the trust administration. Courts and the Board have held that action by the trustees will be attributed to the union under the following fact situations:
(3) Where the trustee's acts which are in question are undertaken in their capacities as union officials rather than as trustees. NLRB v. Construction & General Laborers Union, 577 F.2d 16, 20 (8th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1070, 99 S.Ct. 839, 59 L.Ed.2d 35 (1979).
This Court's en banc decision in Pacific-Northwest held that the scope of the 8(e) proviso extends to contractual provisions which further the common interest of workers at the jobsite. The delinquency clauses at issue clearly fit within the proviso as there interpreted. Further, there is substantial evidence to support the Board's determination that the trust administrator and his counsel were not agents of the union and that the union, therefore, did not threaten to invoke the self-enforcement provisions of the contract. However, the self-enforcement provisions are invalid under § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B).
§ 8(b)(4)(ii)(B), 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(ii)(B) provides: