Opinion ID: 405327
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Delayed Reinstatement of the Returning Strikers

Text: 27 The A.L.J. found that the employees who struck the Company on September 21 were aware of (the) unfair labor practices prior to the strike. John Cuneo, Inc., 253 N.L.R.B. at 1035. The A.L.J. therefore concluded that the strike which followed resulted both from the employer's refusal to bargain and from the pre-strike unfair labor practices. On this basis, the A.L.J. characterized the strike as an unfair labor practice strike from its inception. The Board rejected this characterization, stating: Board law holds that an unfair labor practice strike does not result merely because unfair labor practices precede the strike. Rather, there must be a causal connection between the two events which demonstrates that the strike is the direct outcome of the unfair labor practices. John Cuneo, Inc., 253 N.L.R.B. at 1026. The Board found nothing in the record to indicate that the employees were striking for any reason other than to gain recognition of the Union as their bargaining representative. 28 We agree with the Board's characterization of the strikers' initial purpose as recognition. A lawful strike for union recognition is an economic strike, unless unfair labor practices committed by the employer are a contributing cause of the strike. Mere awareness of unfair labor practices is insufficient to establish this causal connection. E.g., NLRB v. Pope Maintenance Corp., 573 F.2d 898, 906 (5th Cir. 1978); NLRB v. Colonial Haven Nursing Home, Inc., 542 F.2d 691, 704 (7th Cir. 1976). The Board fairly read the record here when it concluded that the employees' purpose in striking the Company was only to gain recognition for the Union and not to redress the unfair labor practices that had occurred before September 21, 1977. 9 29 For our present purposes, the rights of the strikers to reinstatement after their unconditional offer to return to work on November 14 were therefore the rights of economic strikers. 10 As economic strikers, the employees were not entitled to immediate reinstatement if they had been permanently replaced by substitute workers hired during the strike. E.g., NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333, 345-46, 58 S.Ct. 904, 910-11, 82 L.Ed. 1381 (1938). On the other hand, the strikers were entitled to reinstatement to any vacancies existing when they made their unconditional offers to return or to any vacancies resulting from a subsequent departure of permanent replacements or from an expansion of the Company's operations. E.g., NLRB v. Fleetwood Trailer Co., 389 U.S. 375, 380-81, 88 S.Ct. 543, 546-47, 19 L.Ed.2d 614 (1967); Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union v. NLRB, 466 F.2d 380, 387-88 (D.C.Cir.1972); Laidlaw Corp., 171 N.L.R.B. 1366, 1368-70 (1968), enforced, 414 F.2d 99 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 920, 90 S.Ct. 928, 25 L.Ed.2d 100 (1970). The employer bears the burden of showing that the economic strikers were permanently replaced and that no jobs subsequently became available, or that other legitimate business reasons existed for denying reinstatement. NLRB v. Fleetwood Trailer Co., 389 U.S. at 378, 88 S.Ct. at 545; NLRB v. Great Dane Trailers, Inc., 388 U.S. 26, 34-35, 87 S.Ct. 1792, 1797-1798, 18 L.Ed.2d 1027 (1967); Laidlaw Corp., 171 N.L.R.B. at 1369. 30 The Board found that the Company failed to carry its burden regarding the reinstatement of the striking employees in this case. By its own admission, the Company's evidence was incomplete and did not even indicate the total number of bargaining unit employees on the payroll on and after November 14. Moreover, the Company's own records indicate that new shop employees were hired on November 25 and on January 17, and that two replacement employees quit on November 30. Despite these four proven vacancies, the evidence reveals that no striking employee was reinstated until February 1. 11 Thus, in addition to the Company's failure to prove that the economic strikers had been permanently replaced and that no vacancies existed on November 14, the unrefuted evidence also indicates that the Company did not promptly offer reinstatement to striking employees as jobs became available after November 14. 12