Source: http://openjurist.org/print/31080
Timestamp: 2013-12-07 01:50:45
Document Index: 120480632

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 158', '§ 2', '§ 8', '§ 8']

441 US 488 Ford Motor Company v. National Labor Relations Board
99 S.Ct. 1842
60 L.Ed.2d 420
FORD MOTOR COMPANY, etc., Petitioner,v.NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD et al.
No. 77-1806.
Held: In-plant cafeteria and vending machine food and beverage prices and services are "terms and conditions of employment" subject to mandatory collective bargaining under §§ 8(a)(5) and 8(d) of the NLRA. Pp. 494-503.
(a) Since Congress has assigned to the NLRB the primary task of marking out the scope of the statutory language and duty to bargain, and since the NRLB has special expertise in classifying bargaining subjects as "terms and conditions of employment," its judgment as to what is a mandatory bargaining subject is entitled to considerable deference. Pp. 494-496.
(b) The NLRB's judgment is subject to judicial review, but if its construction of the statute is reasonably defensible, it should not be rejected merely because the courts might prefer another view of the statute. Here, the NLRB's view is not an unreasonable or unprincipled construction of the statute and should be accepted and enforced. Pp. 497-498. (c) Including within § 8(d) the prices of in-plant-supplied food and beverages serves the ends of the NLRA by funneling an area of common dispute between employers and employees into collective bargaining. Pp. 498-500.
(d) In-plant food prices and services are an aspect of the relationship between petitioner and its employees, and no third-party interest is directly implicated. Therefore, the standard applied in Chemical & Alkali Workers v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., 404 U.S. 157, 92 S.Ct. 383, 30 L.Ed.2d 341, as to whether the third-party concern "vitally affects" the "terms and conditions" of the bargaining-unit employees' employment, has no application. Pp. 500-501.
Theophil C. Kammholz, Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.
Norton J. Come, Washington, D. C., for respondent NLRB.
John A. Fillion, Detroit, Mich., for respondent UAW Local 588.
The principal question1 in this case is whether prices for in-plant cafeteria and vending machine food and beverages are "terms and conditions of employment" subject to mandatory collective bargaining under §§ 8(a)(5) and 8(d) of the National Labor Relations Act. 49 Stat. 452, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(5) and 158(d).2
* Petitioner, Ford Motor Co., operates an automotive parts stamping plant in Chicago Heights, Ill., employing 3,600 hourly rated production employees. These employees are represented in collective bargaining with Ford by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, and by its administrative component, Local 588, a respondent here.
For many years, Ford has undertaken to provide in-plant food services to its Chicago Heights employees.3 These services, which include both cafeterias and vending machines, are managed by an independent caterer, ARA Services, Inc. Under its contract with Ford, ARA furnishes the food, management, machines, and personnel in exchange for reimbursement of all direct costs and a 9% surcharge on net receipts.4 Ford has the right to review and approve the quality, quantity, and price of the food served.
The Union then filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Board, alleging a refusal to bargain contrary to § 8(a)(5).5 The Board sustained the charge, ordering Ford to bargain on both food prices and services and to supply the Union with the relevant information requested. Ford Motor Co. (Chicago Stamping Plant), supra. In doing so, the Board reaffirmed its position, expressed in several prior cases, that prices of in-plant-supplied food and beverages are generally mandatory bargaining subjects, a position that had not been accepted by reviewing courts.6 The Board also noted that the circumstances of this case made it a particularly strong one for invoking the duty to bargain.7
The case came before the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Ford's petition for review and the Board's cross petition for enforcement. That court, while adhering to its prior decision in NLRB v. Ladish Co., 538 F.2d 1267 (1976), which had refused enforcement of a Board order to bargain about in-plant food prices, enforced the Board's order here because, "under the facts and circumstances of this case, in-plant cafeteria and vending machine food prices and services materially and significantly affect and have an impact upon terms and conditions of employment and therefore are mandatory subjects of bargaining." 571 F.2d, at 1000. The court was particularly influenced by the lack of reasonable eating alternatives for employees, declaring that "[t]he food one must pay for and eat as a captive customer within the employer's plant can be viewed as a physical dimension of one's working environment." Ibid.
Because of the importance of the issue and the apparent conflict between the decision below and decisions of other Circuits, see n. 6, supra, we granted certiorari. 439 U.S. 891, 99 S.Ct. 247, 58 L.E.2d 236 (1978). We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit enforcing the Board's order to bargain.
The Board has consistently held that in-plant food prices are among those terms and conditions of employment defined in § 8(d) and about which the employer and union must bargain under §§ 8(a)(5) and 8(b)(3). See n. 6, supra. Because it is evident that Congress assigned to the Board the primary task of construing these provisions in the course of adjudicating charges of unfair refusals to bargain and because the "classification of bargaining subjects as 'terms or conditions of employment' is a matter concerning which the Board has special expertise," Meat Cutters v. Jewel Tea Co., 381 U.S. 676, 685-686, 85 S.Ct. 1596, 1600, 14 L.Ed.2d 640 (1965), its judgment as to what is a mandatory bargaining subject is entitled to considerable deference.
In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor Relations Act to obligate unions as well as management to bargain; and § 8(d) explicitly defined the duty of both sides to bargain as the obligation 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, now codified at 29 U.S.C. § 158(d). The original House bill had contained a specific listing of the issues subject to mandatory bargaining, H.R.3020, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., § 2(11) (1947); H.R.Rep.No.245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 22-23, 49 (1947), but this attempt to "straight-jacke[t]" and to "limit narrowly the subject matters appropriate for collective bargaining," id., at 71 (minority report);8 see also 93 Cong.Rec. 3446-3447 (1947) (remarks of Rep. Klein), was rejected in conference in favor of the more general language adopted by the Senate and now appearing in § 8(d). S.1126, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., § 8(d) (1947); see 93 Cong.Rec. 6444 (1947) (summary report of Sen. Taft); cf. H.R.Conf.Rep.No.510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 34 (1947); U.S.Code Cong.Serv.1947, p. 1135. It is thus evident that Congress made a conscious d