Opinion ID: 679499
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Common Background

Text: 4 Until late 1989, Crown's Vineland plant had two three-piece can manufacturing lines, which produced can cylinders and separate top and bottom lids. Crown disassembled one three-piece line in December 1989 to make way for a new two-piece line, which produced cans with only a separate top. Crown planned to remove the remaining three-piece line from Vineland after the two-piece line became operational in March 1990. 5 As a result of this shift to two-piece technology, Crown no longer needed all 31 employees. Nevertheless, it retained all but its two most junior employees. Crown put many of those displaced to work on short-term maintenance and repair projects, because it hoped to create additional work at Vineland by developing two new projects. First, Progresso Foods, Crown's Vineland neighbor and principal customer, proposed installing a can-handling system in Crown's plant to be operated by Crown employees. Second, Crown contemplated moving an end press, which makes lids, from its Hurlock, Maryland plant to Vineland. By late 1989, the company had tentatively decided to make the move. 6 During the three to five months before the unionization effort began, the company emphasized to the workers that the two hoped-for projects were necessary to maintain the current employment level and were cost-sensitive. As the ALJ found, John Bugnitz, the plant manager, held several meetings with employees stressing the subject of 'job security' and 'cost' . J.A. 517. Bugnitz testified, without contradiction (and apparently without disbelief by the ALJ), that in the latter part of 1989, before the unionization drive began, he had explained to the employees that the reason for the proposed move of the end press was that we were the cheapest place to manufacture those things. J.A. 232. 7 All of the 32 plants Crown operated in early 1990, with the exception of the Vineland plant and one other, were organized by labor unions. The Steelworkers represented 12 of the unionized plants, which were organized into a single, multi-plant bargaining unit with a Master Agreement establishing uniform terms and conditions of employment for all 12 plants. The Master Agreement had a provision automatically extending its terms to any new plants where the Steelworkers became certified or recognized. Thus, the company, the union, and the workers all knew in advance precisely what contract terms would apply if the Steelworkers became the representative at Vineland. These terms included wages that averaged about $16.50 an hour, as opposed to a $13.50 average under the status quo, as well as increases in other worker benefits. J.A. 132, 134. That unionization would increase costs at Vineland was never in doubt.