Opinion ID: 715784
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dual Cards

Text: 49 In contesting the Board's finding that they unlawfully signed a recognition agreement and a collective bargaining agreement, Katz's and Local 131 make the identical argument that Katz's made in challenging the Board's finding that it unlawfully withdrew recognition from Local 100: because Local 100 used fraudulent and coercive means to obtain signatures from Katz's employees, the March 30 and April 9 employee petitions cannot be counted towards majority support for Local 100. Accordingly, they claim that the April 11, 1991, count of Local 131's authorization cards provided a valid and reasonable basis for Katz's good faith belief that it was proper to recognize and bargain with Local 131. 50 Under the NLRA, an employer may recognize a union as its exclusive collective bargaining agent only if that union enjoys the support of a majority of the employees. Local 144 v. NLRB, 9 F.3d 218, 223 (2d Cir.1993); see 29 U.S.C. §§ 159(a), 158(a)(2). As discussed above, the ALJ reasonably found that Local 100's employee petitions represented a valid showing of support for that union and created a dual card situation. All duplicate signatures were properly disregarded by the ALJ, and accordingly, he found that Local 131 lacked majority employee support. Inasmuch as Local 131 did not have the unambiguous support of a majority of Katz's employees, Katz's and Local 131 unlawfully entered into a recognition agreement and a collective bargaining agreement. Because [t]he employer's knowledge or ignorance of the union's minority status is irrelevant to the question [of] whether the recognition constitutes an unfair labor practice, Human Development Ass'n v. NLRB, 937 F.2d 657, 665 (D.C.Cir.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 950, 112 S.Ct. 1512, 117 L.Ed.2d 649 (1992), we need not consider Katz's good faith argument.