Opinion ID: 1653006
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Protected Activity Under the NLRA.

Text: In support of their claim of protection under the NLRA, defendants rely on the decision in Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 108 S.Ct. 1392, 99 L.Ed.2d 645 (1988). The Court held in that case that the NLRA protects nonpicketing communications directed at customers of a distributor of goods produced by an employer with whom the union has a labor dispute. Id. at 574, 108 S.Ct. at 1396, 99 L.Ed.2d at 654. Defendants argue that, by analogy, their handbilling activities at Ryan's should also be protected under the NLRA. DeBartolo does not, however, directly answer the question presented here, i.e., whether this activity, if protected under the NLRA, may take place on private property. The gravamen of the criminal trespass offense of which defendants were convicted is not handbilling. It is remaining on private property after being requested to leave by the owner. In Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County District Council of Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180, 98 S.Ct. 1745, 56 L.Ed.2d 209 (1978), the Court observed that in considering the validity of union activities on private property [a] trespass is far more likely to be unprotected than protected. Id. at 205, 98 S.Ct. at 1761, 56 L.Ed.2d at 230. In Emery Realty, Inc. v. NLRB, 863 F.2d 1259, 1264 (6th Cir.1988), the court affirmed a Board decision finding that it was an unfair labor practice for a property owner to refuse to allow union handbilling. In that case, however, core rights of organizing nonunion employees were involved. [1] In addition, it appeared that the activities occurred in an arcade which was used as a public thoroughfare and in which other groups were permitted to solicit passersby. Id. In Laborer's Local Union No. 204 v. NLRB, 904 F.2d 715 (D.C.Cir.1990), the court reviewed an NLRB decision in a case involving facts similar to the present case. There, union members handbilled a Hardee's store because construction workers remodeling another Hardee's store were being paid substandard wages. The union members had positioned themselves in the public parking lot adjacent to the store. At the insistence of Hardee's, they were arrested for trespass but never prosecuted. Id. at 716. The court in Laborer's Local affirmed the Board's decision that Hardee's had not committed an unfair labor practice by causing the arrest of the union handbillers. Id. at 719. The Board had based its decision on the so-called pathmarking opinion in Jean Country, 291 N.L.R.B. No. 4 (Sept. 27, 1988). The Jean Country analysis requires a comparative evaluation with a view to accommodation of the opposing interests. This requires consideration of alternative means by which the union may assert its interests. The court of appeals approved this test. Laborer's Local, 904 F.2d at 718. In upholding the Board's decision, the court in Laborer's Local noted that the union activities involved were noncore rights which merit less protection than core activities. The Hardee's store was found to have had only an attenuated connection to union activity. Id. Consequently, the court concluded that the Board acted properly in deferring to the owner's property rights. Id. at 719. Our review of these federal decisions convinces us that defendants in the present case have failed to establish that their activities at Ryan's were insulated from criminal prosecution by the NLRA.