Opinion ID: 772239
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hardship on Employees

Text: 84 The majority ignores the hardship that a bargaining order will impose on the employees of SD&A. The core principles underlying the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are freedom of choice and majority rule in employee selection of representatives. Conair Corporation v. NLRB , 721 F.2d 1355, 1381 (D.C. Cir. 1983); 29 U.S.C. S 159(a) (union representation must be based on majority rule); 29 U.S.C.S 157 (granting employees the right to engage in or refrain from engaging in union activity). A bargaining order, by its nature, infringes these fundamental statutory rights. 85 It is true that in this case credible evidence exists that a majority of the employees of SD&A signed authorization cards indicating support for the union. Nonetheless, a substantial majority of those same employees subsequently voted against union representation. The majority attributes this turnabout to a series of unfair labor practices committed by the employer. However, it must be remembered that SD&A ran a vigorous campaign against the union. This campaign consisted, for the most part, of perfectly lawful attempts to dissuade its employees from joining the ILWU. I see no justification for the majority's holding that the full margin of victory for the company -some twenty-two votes -is attributable to the company's unfair labor practices. Neither the evidence of waning employee support for the union nor the nature of the employer's conduct supports such a finding. 86 In fact, a fair reading of the record indicates that the employer succeeded in convincing employees that union representation was inadvisable. Many employees came to see the collective bargaining process as a risky or even futile endeavor. Others grew tired of the conflict and strain of the union campaign and feared that such conflict would continue if the union won the election. Still others, for a variety of reasons, believed that a union workplace would not be in their own best interest. There is little doubt that the employer encouraged these concerns during weekly meetings and individual discussions with employees. Such conduct, however, is not illegal. It is part of the full and wide open discussion of all of the arguments for, as well as against, unionization. Excelsior Underwear, 156 NLRB 1236, 1241 (1966). 87 In addition to its lawful attempts at persuasion, SD&A engaged in unfair labor practices. That fact alone is not sufficient to justify a bargaining order. It is the nature and effect of the unfair labor practices that is important. Gissel, 395 U.S. at 600 (violations must be likely to destroy the union's majority and seriously impede the election to justify a bargaining order). The actual unfair labor practices at issue in this case are not the type that normally justify a bargaining order. 88 There were, after all, no firings of union supporters nor threats of business closure were the union to win the election. The employer violated the Act when it gave employees the benefits they sought. The most serious allegation against SD&A is that it provided new equipment and higher salaries for its employees. It also promised that other benefits would follow if the union lost the election. If the union won the election, alternatively, SD&A managers allegedly told employees that they would have to start punching a time clock, they wouldn't be permitted to receive their paychecks early, and they would lose the benefit of lengthy cigarette breaks. The alleged discrimination against union supporters consisted of a single verbal reprimand of a union supporter and a single instance where the company prohibited the distribution of union literature to employees while they were at their work stations. I do not dispute that several of these actions, if proven, violated the NLRA. I question, however, whether the company's substantial margin of victory can be attributed to these acts, and, consequently, whether a bargaining order is appropriate. 89 In short, it is not possible to say why employees voted against union representation. Thus, a new election should be the preferred mechanism to resolve the discrepancy between the preference expressed on signed authorization cards and that expressed at the ballot box. Only a new election permits employees to fully realize their inviolate right under the NLRA to choose their own representative. Skyline Distributors, 99 F.3d at 411. A bargaining order, alternatively, substitutes the agency's big (even good) brother judgment for a majority of employees' express choice of a bargaining representative. Conair, 721 F.2d at 1379. 90 This withdrawal of employees' core statutory rights constitutes a hardship that should weigh heavily in determining the appropriateness of S 10(j) relief. It is true that Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center provides a lenient standard for the Regional Director to establish likelihood of success on the merits. However, we should be mindful that applying this same lenient standard to the balance of hardships prong creates the risk of depriving employees of their statutory right to choose (or not choose) union representation. On the limited record before us, the imposition of such a hardship is unwarranted.