Opinion ID: 321883
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: bargaining to impasse on the bargaining unit

Text: 18 The Companies next contend that the Board erred in reversing the Administrative Law Judge and holding that the photoengravers' Union was entitled to insist to the point of impasse and strike upon expansion of the contractual bargaining unit to include the general production workers. The result of this holding is that the strike was not considered violative of section 8(b)(3) as embracing an unlawful objective. The Companies urge that a proposed change in the bargaining unit is not a mandatory subject of bargaining and that the Union members lost the protection of the Act by striking to enlarge the unit. If the Companies' view is correct, those NPC workers who refused to cross the Union's picket line also lost the protection of the Act because sympathy strikers stand in the same shoes as the striker with whom they sympathize. NLRB v. Southern Greyhound Lines, 426 F.2d 1299, 1301 (5th Cir. 1970); see Virginia Stage Lines, Inc. v. NLRB, 441 F.2d 499 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 856, 92 S.Ct. 105, 30 L.Ed.2d 98 (1971). Since neither Company's employees were engaged in protected activities, neither Company was required to reinstate its workers upon their request. NLRB v. Marshall Car Wheel & Foundry Co., 218 F.2d 409 (5th Cir. 1955); National Packing Co. v. NLRB, 352 F.2d 482 (10th Cir. 1965), appeal after remand, 377 F.2d 800 (1967). On the other hand, if the photoengravers were engaged in a lawful strike over expansion of the bargaining unit, both Companies committed an unfair labor practice in not reinstating their employees upon unconditional request. 19 Generally, insistence to the point of impasse on restriction or expansion of the bargaining unit is an unfair labor practice. See, e.g., Hess Oil & Chemical Corp. v. NLRB, 415 F.2d 440 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied,397 U.S. 916, 90 S.Ct. 920, 25 L.Ed.2d 97 (1970); NLRB v. IBEW, 266 F.2d 349 (5th Cir. 1959); International Longshoremen's Ass'n v. NLRB, 107 U.S.App.D.C. 329, 277 F.2d 681 (1960); Douds v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n, 241 F.2d 278 (2d Cir. 1957). The considerations prompting this general rule are, however, largely absent in this case. We therefore decline to extend the rule to cover the particular facts before us in the face of a contrary conclusion by the Board, the agency charged with the responsibility of setting our national labor relations policy. In so doing we do not in any manner impugn the general rule in the contexts in which it has previously been applied. 20 Here the Union already represented the general production workers they sought to include in the bargaining unit. Thus, unlike other court decisions, this case does not involve any interference with the representational rights of the employees affected by expansion of the unit. See, e.g., Sperry Systems Management Div. v. NLRB, 492 F.2d 63 (2d Cir. 1974), petition for cert. filed, 43 U.S.L.W. 3065 (U.S., Aug. 13, 1974), (No. 73-1712); International Longshoremen's Ass'n v. NLRB, 107 U.S.App.D.C. 329, 277 F.2d 681 (1960). Nor does it present a jurisdictional dispute between two unions. See, e.g., NLRB v. IBEW, 266 F.2d 349 (5th Cir. 1959); Smith Steel Workers v. A. O. Smith Corp., 420 F.2d 1 (7th Cir. 1969). 21 The Companies concede that the proposed bargaining unit, comprising both photoengravers and general production workers, would be an appropriate unit under established Board principles. The Board relied on a clause in the expiring contract providing for inclusion in the contract of any unaffiliated department that subsequently chose the photoengravers' Union as its bargaining representative, as an indication that the parties regarded the scope of the bargaining unit as an issue suitable for resolution through bargaining. 22 In contrast to other decisions, this case does not involve a demand for a unit that would conflict with a previous Board unit certification. See, e.g., Sperry Systems Management Div. v. NLRB, 492 F.2d 63 (2d Cir. 1974), petition for cert. filed, 43 U.S.L.W. 3065 (U.S., Aug. 13, 1974) (No. 73-1712); NLRB v. Southland Cork Co., 342 F.2d 702 (4th Cir. 1965). The mere absence of Board certification does not, however, preclude an unfair labor practice finding. See Hess Oil & Chemical Corp. v. NLRB, 415 F.2d 440 (5th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 916, 90 S.Ct. 920, 25 L.Ed.2d 97 (1970). In Hess, the respondent company was held to have violated the Act by insisting to impasse on the exclusion of certain workers from an appropriate bargaining unit previously agreed upon by contract. The Court indicated that it was an unfair labor practice to insist on a change from an appropriate bargaining unit to an inappropriate one. Id. at 444. See also Boire v. Teamsters, 479 F.2d 778, 801 (5th Cir. 1973). In seeking an appropriate unit, the Union did not infringe upon the Board's function of formulating national labor relations policy, particularly in view of the parties' previous agreement concerning the scope of the bargaining unit. Since this case is not one appropriate for application of the doctrine that insistence on a change in the bargaining unit is a violation of the Act, we uphold the Board's finding that the Companies committed unfair labor practices in refusing to reinstate the employees who struck in support of the enlarged bargaining unit. 23