Opinion ID: 405345
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Summary of our Previous Decision

Text: 4 The Board's original decision issued bargaining orders against 16 members of the Association. In light of our holding that all these employers were entitled to withdraw from multi-employer bargaining because an impasse had been reached, we divided the employers into three classes as follows, 582 F.2d at 149-50: 5 Class I-6 employers who signed collective bargaining agreements with a rival union, Sheet Metal, Alloys and Hardware Fabricators and Warehousemen, Local 810, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Local 810), before giving Local 455 notice of their intention to withdraw from the Association. 1 6 Class II-3 employers who signed with Local 810 after giving Local 455 notice of withdrawal from the Association. 2 7 Class III-7 employers who gave notice of withdrawal from the Association, but signed with neither Local 455 nor Local 810. 3 8 We adopted a different analysis for each of these classes. As to Class I, we held, 582 F.2d at 149, that the employers violated § 8(a)(5) by failing to give notice of their withdrawal from the Association prior to signing with Local 810. 4 As to Class II, we refused to affirm the Board's findings of § 8(a) (5) violations, 582 F.2d at 151. We held that the Class II employers had not violated § 8(a)(5) by withdrawing from the Association and that the employers had given timely notice of their withdrawal. We also held, however, that these employers were under a duty to seek bargaining with Local 455 on an individual basis before negotiating with Local 810, 582 F.2d at 151. We held further that if an employer could show either that it entertained a rational, good faith doubt as to Local 455's majority status or that the union actually had lost its majority status, then no § 8(a)(5) violation could be found. Since the Board had refused to consider evidence of the employers' rational, good faith doubts as to Local 455's majority status, no § 8(a)(5) violation could be found on the record before us. After indicating that further evidence might be taken on the question, 582 F.2d at 153 n.37, we said that (i)n the absence of evidence as to good faith doubt or actual loss of majority status, the Board may find respondents in class two guilty of a refusal to bargain. 582 F.2d at 151. 9 As to Class III, we held, 582 F.2d at 151, that there had been no § 8(a)(5) violations. We reasoned that Local 455's failure to have requested bargaining with the Class III employers on an individual basis following their notices of withdrawal from the multi-employer unit prevented a finding that the individual employers had refused to bargain. Noting that the unfair labor practices of the respondents did not taint election machinery and the lapse of time and our lack of information concerning current labor relations in the industry, we left it to the Board to consider whether an election or a bargaining order would be a more appropriate sanction against the respondents in Class I and against any respondents in Class II who might be found guilty of § 8(a)(5) violations, 582 F.2d at 152. 10 We later turned to portions of the Board's order which had required the reinstatement of striking employees as unfair labor practice strikers. Stating that in view of our holdings with respect to Classes II and III, not all respondents' employees became unfair labor practice strikers, 582 F.2d at 152, we said that we would nevertheless have enforced the Board's reinstatement order against those employers guilty of §§ 8(a)(1), (2) and (5) violations, ... if the record had reflected an unconditional offer to return to work. We found, however, 582 F.2d at 152, that there was no such offer since the letters requesting reinstatement by Local 445 sent in February and March 1976, were accompanied by letters demanding that the employers implement a stipulation negotiated by five members who had remained in the Association, which we held to be not binding on those who had withdrawn, whether lawfully or not, 582 F.2d at 149.