Opinion ID: 496585
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Threats; Coercion; Restraint.

Text: 22 Section 8(b)(4)(i) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(b)(4)(i), prohibits unions from engaging in strikes or withholding services in furtherance of certain illegal objects. Section 8(b)(4)(ii), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(b)(4)(ii), renders it unlawful for unions to threaten, coerce, or restrain in furtherance of those objects. This language is pragmatic in its application, looking to the coercive nature of the conduct, NLRB v. Fruit and Vegetable Packers and Warehousemen, Local 760, 377 U.S. 58, 68, 84 S.Ct. 1063, 1069, 12 L.Ed.2d 129 (1964), not to the label which it bears. It is, moreover, broad and sweeping. Read correctly, the statute encompasses virtually any form of economic pressure of a compelling or restraining nature. Associated General Contractors of California v. NLRB, 514 F.2d 433, 438 (9th Cir.1975). The strike and the resultant picketing which occurred in this case were clearly proscribed by Sec. 8(b)(4)(i). Although Local 25 contends that such conduct was undertaken only as a means of enforcing the NEJAC award, the Board found otherwise. That finding was plainly supported by substantial--albeit inferential--evidence. A contract clause, however innocuous on its face, cannot be implemented by striking a secondary employer. See Enterprise Ass'n, 429 U.S. at 520-21, 97 S.Ct. at 899. 23 A closer question is presented as to the processing and enforcement of grievances. (Although the Board did not pass upon whether the union's grievance handling alone constituted unlawful secondary activity, see supra Part II, it did rule that Local 25's entire course of conduct--a course of conduct which prominently featured the processing and filing of multiple grievances--was violative of the proscriptions of the Act.) In the union's view, processing grievances under the collective bargaining agreement was classic primary activity addressed not to Local 25's problems with Sears, but to its contractual rights vis-a-vis Bodeli. So, the appellant's argument runs, such conduct could not properly be swept into the Board's Sec. 8(b)(4)(i, ii)(B) bin. We disagree. 24 In Bill Johnson's Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U.S. 731, 103 S.Ct. 2161, 76 L.Ed.2d 277 (1983), the Court held that an employer's prosecution of a retaliatory state court suit against striking employees would amount to an unfair labor practice if filed with an improper motive and without a reasonable basis. Id. at 744, 748-49, 103 S.Ct. at 2172-73. See also Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883, 896, 104 S.Ct. 2803, 2811, 81 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). We apply Bill Johnson's by analogy here. 4 Cf. International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, Local 32 v. Pacific Maritime Ass'n, 773 F.2d 1012, 1015 (9th Cir.1985) (applying Bill Johnson's test to union's effort to enforce arbitral award), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 2277, 90 L.Ed.2d 720 (1986). 25 The Board found that the principal object of the flood of grievances which inundated Bodeli in the fall of 1985 was to pressure it, though a neutral employer, to use its influence on Sears to revive the preexisting work relationship. That finding was tantamount to a finding of improper motivation, for use of the grievance mechanism to achieve such an end is, as the Board ruled, secondary and violative of Sec. 8(b)(4)(B). [Sec. 8(b)(4)(i, ii)(B) ] The Board also held that, since three things were crystal clear--Bodeli had no right to control who did the platform work, Local 25 knew as much (at least from July 17, 1985 forward), and the collective bargaining agreement contained no prophylactic provisions protecting the union in the event the work was lost--the grievances were doomed to fail from the very start. It hardly warrants citation of authority to acknowledge that a party which undertakes an action (say, the processing of a stream of grievances) with an awareness of all the relevant facts and without the faintest hope of success on the merits, does so without a reasonable basis. See Bill Johnson's, 461 U.S. at 743-44, 103 S.Ct. at 2170 (no reasonable basis if claim insubstantial or baseless); cf. Natasha, Inc. v. Evita Marine Charters, Inc., 763 F.2d 468, 472 (1st Cir.1985) (appeal frivolous when the result is obvious, or the arguments are wholly without merit) (citations omitted). 26 These findings are clearly consistent with the weight of the evidence adduced at the hearing. The scenario seems plain: the union, dismayed at the prospect of Sears' personnel taking over the dock work, chose to exert pressure in a variety of ways upon Bodeli, in the hope of influencing Sears to resume wearing the union label. The grievances--addressed to an employer which was powerless to award the controverted work--were but a tactical gambit, proffered without any basis in fact or in law. The weapons which Local 25 chose to employ in its struggle to regain the jobs comprised an assortment of unfairly coercive implements. The Board was well within its rights in holding that the union's course of conduct, including the scattershot filing of a succession of baseless grievances, amounted to the outlawed application of forbidden pressure in derogation of the Act.