Opinion ID: 269384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Workers Entitled To Reinstatement

Text: 22 Clearly, workers who did not accept Kohler's offer because of the Company's position with regard to replacements and the shortened work week did not receive the benefits of the order we enforced. Different questions arise with respect to strikers who assigned refusal to bargain, or both the short work week and the refusal to bargain, as the reason for not returning. 23 The Board has sought an adjudication of contempt less sweeping than our decree might support. Rather than argue that Kohler's offer of reinstatement was defective as to all workers because of the Company's refusal to discharge replacements, it concedes that unless a worker knew of and relied on this defect, the offer was complying as to him. The Board may have thought this a limited concession, made to avoid imposing heavier burdens on Kohler than the remedial goals of the Act require. 15 But the concession raises a broader question-- whether Kohler has met its obligation to all strikers who did not rely on the defect found. As to them, the concession seems to imply that Kohler made a complying offer, its only reinstatement obligation. It would thus appear that any right to protest Kohler's continuing refusal to bargain would be protected under the Act, N.L.R.B. v. R. C. Can Co., 328 F.2d 974, 978-979 (5th Cir. 1964), but not under the decree we enforced. Accordingly, the argument runs, when at the conclusion of their protest the Union members sought and Kohler refused reinstatement, the Board's proper response would have been to bring new unfair labor practice proceedings seeking an order for reinstatement. 24 The argument does not convince us because it neglects Kohler's non-compliance with another important provision of the decree, requiring it to bargain in good faith with Local 833. Kohler refused to bargain in order to avoid mooting its challenge to the Union's bargaining status. Although its reason for refusing may have been sound, we think that in essaying piecemeal compliance with the Board's decree it left open the possibility of such protest as here occurred. In the circumstances, Kohler's refusal to bargain was a continuation of its illegal course of action, interdicted under the decree and not a new cause for protest. We agree with the Master and the Board that workers could refuse to accept a complying offer of reinstatement when the Company in other respects ignored the Board's decree, without forfeiting their reinstatement rights. 25 We touch here on the rather unusual nature of contempt proceedings in connection with Labor Board orders. Our decree was patterned after the Board's administrative determination of the steps required to redress Kohler's unlawful behavior during the strike. But this determination did not resolve every question that might arise when compliance was attempted. We cannot anticipate all such questions and do not have the expertise to determine what resolution will provide the needed remedies. Board compliance officers, who act on behalf of the Board and are subject to review by it, regularly handle such problems. In construing our decree, we should give great weight to determinations by these officers and the Board as to its meaning. 16 26 The pleadings here disclosed such determinations. Correspondence between Kohler and Board compliance officers, submitted at our request, shows that Kohler early sought the Board's aid in construing the reinstatement order, particularly with respect to those workers who had not returned because of the refusal to bargain, the short week, or similar reasons. In April 1961, eleven months before our decree, the Board's officer responded. He said, as the Board does here, that employees have 'the right to refrain from accepting the Company's offer of reinstatement until the Company has complied with the Board's bargaining order. If and when they apply unconditionally for reinstatement, the Company must offer (it)   .' 17 Kohler disagreed and has not been willing to compromise in any respect. 18 The correspondence was not in the record when we issued our decree and Kohler did not attempt to define our decree at that time. Thus, it cannot be said that we adopted the Board's interpretation of its order by entering our decree of enforcement. But the nearly contemporaneous construction of the Board's order by its officers reinforces our conclusion that the Master was right in finding that Kohler violated our decree by failing to offer reinstatement, when sought, to the 'refusal-to-bargain' strikers. 27 Kohler argues that we should distinguish workers who complained of the Company's refusal to bargain from others who said they would not return because Kohler had made no contract with the Union. It says that though the decree required it to bargain it is not required by either the decree or the Act to enter a contract, and therefore the 'no contract' group should not be protected. While this distinction has technical merit, We agree with the Master and Board that it overlooks the realities of the situation. Union members cannot be expected to speak with legal precision in this matter. It is enough that they sought reinstatement during bargaining, and before a contract was signed. 28 Kohler argues also that the Union made no valid application for reinstatement, because its request of July 1962 did not include a list of names. But Kohler had been given a list of strikers seeking reinstatement in September, 1960, and the record shows that at least some of the strikers who did not return informed Kohler of the reasons for their decision. Where such notice had been given, Kohler did not need a new list in 1962. On the other hand, Kohler should not be required to reinstate workers who only now claim reasons for refusal which they may not have had in 1960. Unless a worker informed Kohler of the reason for his refusal to return, or manifested his reason to the company in some other way (e.g., by applying individually for reinstatement after bargaining was resumed in 1962), the Master may properly exclude him from reinstatement. As in the case of releasees and retirees, the questions of fact should be resolved with an eye to the remedial purposes of the decree, and the workers' lack of legal sophistication. But if convinced that Kohler could not have known that a worker was seeking reinstatement in 1962, the Master may deny reinstatement. 29 In sum, we agree with the Board and the Master that the following workers are entitled to receive offers of reinstatement under our decree: those who refused to return because of the short work week and the failure to discharge strike replacements, 19 those who refused to return because of failure to bargain in good faith with the Union and reach a contract, and those who relied on both the short week and the failure to bargain. In fairness to Kohler, however, we think the Master may exclude from these groups any worker as to whom there is neither contemporaneous evidence of his reason for refusing, 20 nor a subsequent individual application for reinstatement.