Source: http://openjurist.org/437/f3d/1266/cogburn-health-center-inc-v-national-labor-relations-board
Timestamp: 2015-08-04 10:07:23
Document Index: 504412403

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

437 F3d 1266 Cogburn Health Center Inc v. National Labor Relations Board | OpenJurist
437 F. 3d 1266 - Cogburn Health Center Inc v. National Labor Relations Board Home
437 F3d 1266 Cogburn Health Center Inc v. National Labor Relations Board 437 F.3d 1266
COGBURN HEALTH CENTER, INC., Petitionerv.NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent.
No. 04-1430.
Argued February 6, 2006.
Decided February 24, 2006.
Annette A. Idalski argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs was Kurt A. Powell. Scot A. Hinshaw and Susan F. Wiltsie entered appearances.
William M. Bernstein, Senior Attorney, National Labor Relations Board, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the briefs were Arthur F. Rosenfeld, General Counsel, John H. Ferguson, Associate General Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate General Counsel, Fred B. Jacob, Supervisory Attorney, and Gregory P. Lauro, Attorney.
Before: SENTELLE and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.
EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.
Cogburn Health Center, Inc. (also referred to by the Board as Cogburn Healthcare Center, Inc.) ("Cogburn" or "Company"), a nursing home in Mobile, Alabama, petitions this court for review of an order of the National Labor Relations Board ("Board"), and the Board cross-applies for enforcement. On July 19, 1996, the Board held a secret-ballot election to determine whether the employees in a designated bargaining unit at Cogburn desired to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1657, AFL-CIO ("Union"). The election results indicated that 52 employees cast votes in favor of the Union, and 72 against. The Union then filed unfair labor practice ("ULP") charges with the Board, and a complaint was issued. The complaint charged that a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit at Cogburn had selected the Union as their bargaining representative by signing authorization cards; that, in April 1996, Cogburn had rejected the Union's request to bargain on behalf of the employees; that Cogburn then engaged in a campaign of ULPs designed to undermine the Union's support; that, because of the serious nature of Cogburn's ULPs, the possibility of conducting a fair rerun election was only slight; and that, in light of this situation, the rights of the employees would be best served by the Board's issuance of a bargaining order. The Board found that Cogburn had indeed engaged in widespread violations of § 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act ("Act"), 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) (2000), including, but not limited to, unlawful surveillance, interrogations, threats, and prohibitions on wearing Union insignias. The Board also found that the Company had discharged five Union supporters during the organizing campaign in violation of §§ 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act, and terminated a sixth employee because of her Union activities and sympathies, and also because she gave testimony for the Union in a representation proceeding, in violation of §§ 8(a)(1), (3), and (4) of the Act. See Cogburn Healthcare Ctr., Inc., 335 N.L.R.B. 1397, 2001 WL 1176589 (2001).
To remedy these violations, the Board ordered Cogburn, inter alia, to cease and desist from engaging in any further unfair labor practices, post appropriate notices to advise employees of their rights under the Act, and reinstate the unlawfully discharged employees and make them whole for their losses. The Board also issued a Gissel bargaining order, see NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 89 S.Ct. 1918, 23 L.Ed.2d 547 (1969), and held that Cogburn violated §§ 8(a)(1) and (5) of the Act by refusing to bargain with the Union on April 18, 1996, when the Union requested bargaining based on a card majority.
Substantial evidence supports the Board's determinations that Cogburn committed the cited ULPs in violation of §§ 8(a)(1), (3), and (4) of the Act. We therefore enforce the Board's order with respect to these charges. We reverse the Board's Gissel bargaining order, however, because the Board failed to credit Cogburn's properly raised evidence of "changed circumstances" that arose during the more than three years when the initial ULP case was pending disposition by the Board. A few more years passed during which Cogburn's motions for reconsideration languished before the Board. Ten years have now elapsed since Cogburn's alleged refusal to bargain in April 1996, and there has been substantial turnover in the employee and management ranks at Cogburn during this period. In the face of this record, the Board has offered no viable justification for an affirmative bargaining order. Under the plain law of this circuit, we reverse the Board's imposition of a Gissel bargaining order. Accordingly, we grant in part and deny in part the Board's cross-petition for enforcement, and we grant in part and deny in part Cogburn's petition for review. The Board's order will be enforced with respect to all disputed issues, save for the Gissel bargaining order.
A. The Union's Organizing Campaign
During the time period relevant to our inquiry, Cogburn was a family-owned and operated nursing home providing medical care in Mobile, Alabama. In October 1995, the Union began a campaign to organize Cogburn's full-time and regular part-time service and maintenance employees. Over the course of the following six-to-nine months, Union organizers distributed leaflets and authorization cards to Cogburn employees who were exiting and entering Company property. On April 18, 1996, after collecting signed authorization cards from a majority of the service and maintenance employees, the Union unsuccessfully sought to bargain with Cogburn on behalf of the employees. The Union also petitioned the Board for a representation election covering the employees. The Board scheduled an election for July 1996.
Throughout the spring and early summer of 1996, the Company engaged in a concerted campaign to undermine the Union's support. Cogburn hired a "private police force" consisting of approximately 35 off-duty Mobile city police officers and installed surveillance equipment directed at the front of the facility where the Union organizers were rallying support. The Company also required its employees to attend mock collective bargaining sessions, at which they were instructed to follow a script in which the Cogburn representative rejected every Union offer. Several Company supervisors and Cogburn co-owner and Vice President, Steve Roberts, conducted a series of "interrogations" — conversations during which they questioned employees about Union activities and their and other employees' feelings about the Union. Finally, during the course of the organizing campaign, six well-known Union supporters were discharged for their Union activities and sympathies.
The Board held a secret-ballot election on July 19, 1996. Of the approximately 135 eligible voters, 52 cast votes in favor of the Union, and 72 against. The Union then filed ULP charges with the Board. After a series of hearings held between March and September 1997, an Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") found that Cogburn had committed numerous violations of the Act. The ALJ recommended, inter alia, that the Company be required to reinstate and grant backpay to the six discharged employees and to bargain with the Union as the exclusive representative of the employees. Cogburn Healthcare Ctr., 335 N.L.R.B. at 1425-26.
B. The Board's Decisions
The Board finally issued a decision on September 27, 2001, over three years after the ALJ's decision. The Board found, in agreement with the ALJ, that Cogburn committed multiple violations of § 8(a)(1) of the Act in response to the Union's organizing campaign. These violations included: coercively interrogating employees; threatening employees with loss of benefit