Opinion ID: 778881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Limitation of CREP and Sandusky

Text: 46 As we explained earlier, the Board's decision in this case fails to distinguish between the activity engaged in by Local 582 and Local 555. Indeed, the Board analyzed the claims regarding Local 582 (involving non-organizational boycotting activities) and Local 555 (involving organizational activity) together. The Board's decision generally held that any and all exclusion of the union from an employer's premises is discriminatory where the employer allows others, such as charities, the right to solicit on its premises. Thus, the Board determined that it did not matter whether the activities engaged in between Local 582 and Local 555 and the charities were similar or whether charities and unions are comparable groups. But see Sandusky, 242 F.3d at 690 (holding that the alleged discriminatory conduct in allowing solicitation by one group while barring such solicitation by another requires that the discrimination be among comparable groups or activities). It is only on appeal that the Board argues that charities and unions are indistinguishable for purposes of a discrimination analysis and that unions engaging in organizational activity specifically and charity solicitations are comparable activities. The arguments the Board now seeks to raise are clearly crafted for appeal because of our holdings in CREP and Sandusky, as the Board's decision did not expressly rely on any such distinctions in reaching its decision. A reviewing court ... must judge the propriety of [the actions of an administrative agency] solely on the grounds invoked by the agency. NLRB v. United States Postal Serv., 833 F.2d 1195, 1201 (6th Cir.1987) (quoting SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 196, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947)). A court will not affirm the administrative action by substituting a more adequate or proper basis ... [and][t]his Court will not affirm the Board's actions based on reasons not relied upon by the Board itself. Id. (rejecting Board's argument before this Court that the Board's reading of the Postal Reorganization Act was supported by a then recent Supreme Court case when case did not lend such support and Board failed to rely on that case to justify its reading of the Act in its decision below); see also NLRB v. Kentucky River Cmty. Care Co., 532 U.S. 706, 715 n. 1, 121 S.Ct. 1861, 149 L.Ed.2d 939 (2001) (We do not... substitute counsel's post hoc rationale for the reasoning supplied by the Board itself.) (quoting NLRB v. Yeshiva Univ., 444 U.S. 672, 685 n. 22, 100 S.Ct. 856, 63 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980)). In any event, even if we were to consider the Board's arguments on appeal as to why this case is distinguishable from CREP and Sandusky, we do not believe that the arguments advanced withstand scrutiny. 47 The Board relies on Meijer Inc. v. NLRB, 130 F.3d 1209 (6th Cir.1997), to support its contention that the holding regarding the term discrimination set forth in CREP, as that term was used in Babcock & Wilcox, is inapplicable to the instant case. In Meijer, the employer challenged a Board's order requiring Meijer, a food and general merchandise retailer, to allow employees at one of its stores to wear union insignia while on the job. Id. at 1210. The store manager had enforced a dress code that banned employees from wearing with their uniforms anything other than name badges, company approved buttons, United Way pins and service recognition pins. Id. at 1211. 48 Meijer argued that CREP was controlling and that the definition of discrimination espoused in that case was dispositive. Id. at 1212. This Court disagreed. It distinguished CREP and explained that the panel in that case adopted a narrow definition of discrimination as a result of (1) the general rule that an owner of private property is under no obligation to permit the distribution of union literature on its property; (2) the substantial difference between the rights of employees and non-employees with respect to the distribution of union literature on privately owned property; and (3) the fact that CREP involved non-employee union representatives engaging in non-organizational activity. Id. at 1213. In addition, the Court in Meijer also noted that CREP's holding relied on a policy consideration not present in Meijer: [T]he Court was ... influenced by the fact that ` [n]o relevant labor policies are advanced by requiring employers to prohibit charitable solicitations in order to preserve the right to exclude non-employee distribution of union literature when access to the target audience is otherwise available. ' Id. (emphasis added) (quoting CREP, 95 F.3d at 465). 49 The Court in Meijer distinguished the case before it for all the reasons noted above, and not, as the Board claims, solely because CREP involved non-organizational activity. Further, it is evident that the Court distinguished Meijer primarily because that case involved Meijer's employees. See e.g., Meijer, 130 F.3d at 1219 (The majority believes that the [CREP] definition of discrimination should be not be applied in the instant case, since [the former case] involved non-employee solicitors and this case involves employees.) (Norris, J., dissenting). As the majority in Meijer pointed out, this distinction is one of substance. Id. at 1213 (noting that [e]mployees are accorded greater protection under the Act than non-employees, but they [employees] are accorded even greater protection under the Act when they are engaged in organizational activity.); see also Babcock, 351 U.S. at 112-13, 76 S.Ct. 679 (explaining that the distinction between employee's right to discuss self-organizing and the right of non-employee organizers is one of substance); CREP, 95 F.3d at 463 (same). 50 Every factor except one that the Court in Meijer pointed to in order to distinguish that case from CREP is relevant to the instant case. This case implicates the presumptive right of Albertson's to exclude distribution of union literature on its property. Further, this case involves non-Albertson's employees seeking access to the company's property. Finally, no relevant labor policies are advanced in banning charitable solicitations in this case where there has been no claim that the target audience was otherwise inaccessible. The only factor that distinguishes this case from CREP or Sandusky is the fact that those cases involved non-organizational activity. The Board urges that we distinguish those cases from this one on that one ground. However, the Board has presented no reasoned basis to justify our doing so. In reaching its holding as to the meaning of the term discrimination, the Court in CREP was interpreting that term as used in Babcock & Wilcox, and Babcock & Wilcox was an organizational case. See Babcock & Wilcox, 351 U.S. at 106, 76 S.Ct. at 681 (explaining that the employer had refused to allow non-employee union organizers on company property to distribute union information targeted at company employees). Thus, the only basis on which to distinguish this case from CREP or Sandusky is that those cases involved non-organizational activity; yet in reaching the holding regarding discrimination, they were interpreting an organizational case. We believe under these circumstances, those cases cannot meaningfully be distinguished from the instant case, and we are therefore bound by their holdings. See United States v. Humphrey, 287 F.3d 422, 451-52 (6th Cir.2002) (explaining that a panel is bound to follow precedential authority from another panel of this court unless such authority can be distinguished, even if current panel is inclined to disagree with prior decision); Sandusky, 242 F.3d at 692 (explaining that firm, fixed rule in this circuit is that one panel cannot overrule a prior panel's holding); Int'l Ins. Co. v. Stonewall Ins. Co., 86 F.3d 601, 608 (6th Cir.1996) (holding that although on their face two prior cases from different panels appear to contradict, the issue involved was heavily fact driven, and court would apply the holding of the one prior case with facts most analogous to the issue before the court). 51 We of course also are bound by this Court's holding in Meijer, but as we have explained, that case does not require that we reject the definition of discrimination as set forth in Sandusky and CREP. This Court has recognized that there is an hierarchy of rights under Section 7 of the NLRA. NLRB v. Great Scot, Inc., 39 F.3d 678, 682-83 (6th Cir.1994). While the core activity protected by Section 7 is the right of employees to self-organize, as previously stated, non-employees have a `derivative right' to engage in organizational activities. Id. Farthest removed from protection under Section 7 of the NLRA is the activity engaged in by the non-employees in CREP and Sandusky — picketing activity. See Great Scot, 39 F.3d at 682 (explaining that non-employee picketing warrants even less protection than non-employee organizational activity). While non-employee organizers may warrant greater protection under the NLRA than non-employees who engage in non-organizational activity, both situations still implicate trespass activity. As this Court in Meijer noted, trespass cases create a situation where the interests of the trespasser are at their weakest, and therefore, the property owner has a presumptive right to exclude non-employees from its property. 130 F.3d at 1213 (emphasis added). Thus, while `an employer may not always bar non-employee union organizers from his property,' the burden the union bears in showing that the employer may not do so is a `heavy one ... evidenced by the fact that the balance struck by the Board and the courts under the Babcock accommodation principle has rarely been in favor of trespass organizational activity.' Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 535, 112 S.Ct. 841 (quoting Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180, 98 S.Ct. 1745, 56 L.Ed.2d 209 (1978)). In contrast, where employees rights are at issue no restriction on employees rights to self-organization is permissible unless the employer shows that such restriction is necessary to maintain order and discipline. Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 533, 112 S.Ct. 841. Because, among other things, the Court in Meijer addressed concerns regarding self-organizational rights of employees themselves and the rights that they are granted under the NLRA, the Court held that it was not bound by CREP and Sandusky. Because we do not have such considerations before us in the instant case, we hold that the definition of discrimination provided in CREP and Sandusky controls. 6