Opinion ID: 4529815
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: CEO McIlwain’s statements

Text: Local 15 also asserts that PSAV’s behavior away from the bargaining table demonstrates its bad faith. Specifically, Local 15 points to a meeting held the day before PSAV’s Philadelphia employees were scheduled to vote on unionization during which McIlwain stated that negotiations in Washington were at a “stalemate,” which could occur in Philadelphia, and that PSAV “will not enter into an agreement that would negatively impact our business model.” Generally, the NLRB is “reluctant to find bad-faith bargaining exclusively on the basis of a party’s misconduct away from the bargaining table.” St. George Warehouse, Inc., 349 N.L.R.B. at 877 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We consider such conduct only “for what light it sheds on conduct at the bargaining table.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). For example, in St. George Warehouse, the NLRB held that unlawfully assisting with a petition to decertify the union and unilaterally changing the employees’ health plan were insufficient to demonstrate the employer bargained in bad faith. Id. Significant to the NLRB were that two individuals who helped with the decertification petition did not represent the employer during negotiations, and the third individual who was involved in both the decertification and negotiations had only one conversation about decertification. Id. This person’s involvement with the petition did not cause negotiations to IATSE LOCAL 15 V. NLRB 23 break down because negotiations continued for another year. Id. Likewise, the employer changed the employees’ health plan because the prior plan expired, and it was unclear whether the new plan was a “material and substantial change to the status quo.” Id. Conversely, in Overnite Transportation Company, 296 N.L.R.B. 669, 670–71 (1989), the NLRB held that statements threatening employees with plant closures and job loss if the employees unionized, coupled with the employer’s threats to bargain in bad faith, refuse to sign a contract with the union, and break a strike showed that the employer was “bent on behaving as its managers had earlier threatened.” See also Koons Ford of Annapolis, 282 N.L.R.B. 506, 521 (1986) (threats of forcing a strike, severe discipline, and loss of preexisting employee privileges such as a parts discount and ability to work on personal vehicles after hours violated section 8(a)(1) of the Act); Kona 60 Minute Photo, 277 N.L.R.B. 867, 868 (1985) (holding that employer’s threatening and interrogating employee in connection with union organizing constituted an unfair labor practice). Here, McIlwain did not threaten unlawful conduct. He described the status of negotiations in Washington and stated the truism that the duty to bargain in good faith does not require PSAV to accept specific proposals. See Ins. Agents’ Int’1 Union, 361 U.S. at 486. And even if his comments were intended to dissuade PSAV’s Philadelphia employees from supporting the union, they do not demonstrate that PSAV acted in bad faith in its Washington negotiations. As in St. George Warehouse, there is no evidence that McIlwain’s speech caused the parties’ negotiations to break down where the speech occurred after Local 15 filed a charge alleging that PSAV was negotiating in bad faith and refused to 24 IATSE LOCAL 15 V. NLRB continue negotiations with PSAV. Nor were McIlwain’s statements akin to the threats of plant closures and job losses in Overnite. Thus, we conclude that substantial evidence supports the NLRB’s conclusion that PSAV’s conduct away from the bargaining table does not indicate bad faith bargaining.