Opinion ID: 169088
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Affirmative-Bargaining Order

Text: 18 In Mimbres II, Administrative Law Judge Lana Parke affirmatively directed CHS to bargain with the union. CHS protests the order as an abuse of the Board's authority under the Act. The company urges this Court to craft a new standard of review for affirmative bargaining orders that would apply only when the employer questions the majority status of the union. In other words, CHS asks us to write a new standard to govern this case. We decline. As we have said time and again, we will afford substantial deference to the NLRB's selection of an appropriate remedy. MJ Metal Products, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 267 F.3d 1059, 1067 (10th Cir.2001) (citing N.L.R.B. v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 612 n. 32, 89 S.Ct. 1918, 23 L.Ed.2d 547 (1969)). Because a remedial bargaining order involves mixed questions of law and fact, we review it for abuse of discretion. Id. at 1065. 19 The Supreme Court has recognized that an affirmative bargaining order is an appropriate response to a company's repeated refusal to negotiate. Franks Bros. Co. v. N.L.R.B., 321 U.S. 702, 704-06, 64 S.Ct. 817, 88 L.Ed. 1020 (1944); N.L.R.B. v. P. Lorillard Co., 314 U.S. 512, 513, 62 S.Ct. 397, 86 L.Ed. 380 (1942) (per curiam). The Board in Mimbres II found that CHS repeatedly refused to negotiate or to cease making unilateral employment policy changes. We are aware that the District of Columbia Circuit requires the Board to adopt additional findings to support a remedial bargaining order. Vincent Indus. Plastics, Inc. v. NLRB, 209 F.3d 727, 738 (D.C.Cir.2000). Even were we to endorse that circuit's rule, we would find it satisfied here. The Mimbres II Board carefully weighed the three factors enunciated by the D.C. Circuit in Vincent —the employees' rights, the purposes of the Act, and the viability of alternative remedies— and demonstrated why an affirmative bargaining order is appropriate under each. In view of this explanation and having held that the Board's findings in Mimbres II were supported by substantial evidence, we conclude that the Board's decision to issue a remedial bargaining order did not constitute an abuse of discretion.