Opinion ID: 3065791
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Balance of the Hardships

Text: The District Court determined that the balance of the hardships weighed in the Director’s favor. The primary hardship the Hotel had advanced was the protection of its employees from the Union, which, the Hotel claims, the employees did not want to represent them. The Hotel renews that hardship argument before us. We also reject it. “[I]n considering the balance of hardships, the district court must take into account the probability that declining to issue the injunction will permit the alleged[ ] unfair labor practices to reach fruition and thereby render meaningless the Board’s remedial authority.” Miller, 19 F.3d at 460. For that reason, the District Court’s determination that the Regional Director had shown likely irreparable harm to the collective bargaining process meant that there was also considerable weight on his side of the balance of the hardships. The Hotel’s asserted countervailing interest, its employees’ alleged desire not to be represented by the Union, fails to outweigh the hardships advanced by the Regional Director. As an initial matter, there is “nothing unreasonable in giving a short leash to the employer as vindicator of its employees’ organizational freedom.” Auciello Iron Works, Inc. v. NLRB, 517 U.S. 781, 790 (1996). For that reason, courts generally are skeptical about an employer’s claimed “benevolence as its workers’ champion against their certified union.” Id.; see also FRANKL v. HTH CORPORATION; KOA MANAGEMENT 9929 Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, 482 U.S. 27, 50 n.16 (1987). [24] More importantly, by establishing a strong likelihood of success on the merits of the alleged § 8(a)(3) and (5) violations, the Regional Director showed that it was more likely than not that the Hotel had committed pervasive unfair labor practices. As the Board’s case law indicates, in the context of pervasive unremedied unfair labor practices, it becomes impossible to know if employees truly no longer want representation by the elected union, as their expressed preferences are generally tainted by the effects of the unfair labor practices. See Lee Lumber, 322 N.L.R.B. at 177-78. In all likelihood, it will only be possible accurately to gauge union support after the Hotel ceases and desists from its allegedly unfair labor practices and resumes bargaining with the Union —precisely the relief the Regional Director sought and the District Court granted. The District Court, therefore, had no reason to give significant weight to the Hotel’s assertions concerning support for the Union, and so properly assessed the balance of the hardships.