Opinion ID: 432013
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Administrative Considerations

Text: 65 Brief comment concerning the administrative inadequacy of the Board's decision seems warranted. First, as the majority appears to recognize, the Board's decision contains no legal analysis in support of its reversal of the key ALJ findings. Indeed, one cannot help but note the tentative tone of the majority opinion, characterized by such language as, The board's decision, therefore, could be interpreted as .... (Emphasis added). 66 Second, in addition to lacking legal analysis, the Board's opinion lacks an explicit statement of evidence and of findings of fact that support its conclusions that differ from the ALJ's findings and conclusions. The Board's conclusions should be adequate, rational and non-arbitrary. Erie Resistor, 373 U.S. at 236, 83 S.Ct. at 1149. In addition, the Board's conclusions should be rationally based on articulated facts. Yeshiva University, 444 U.S. at 691, 100 S.Ct. at 867. Herein, the Board has failed to refer to facts that could be evaluated by this court on review. This omission is especially apparent in the past practice portion of the Board's opinion. 13 That portion of the Board's opinion strikes at the heart of the disparate treatment finding by the ALJ, yet the Board did not document any evidence in the record that it viewed as supporting its rejection of the ALJ's findings and conclusions. This crucial omission, which forces the majority herein to speculate about the evidence that the Board relied upon to support its reversal, flies in the face of the rule that the Board's evidence, in cases where it does not accept the ALJ's findings, must be stronger than in cases where the findings are accepted. Interboro Contractors, Inc., 388 F.2d at 499. I believe this practice by the Board is unacceptable and should not be countenanced. 67 Finally, I note that the Board affirmed many findings by the ALJ which flowed contrary to its ultimate determination that sections 8(a)(1) and (3) were not violated. In light of the abundance of evidence discussed herein, the Board's affirmance of the ALJ's findings and conclusions to the extent consistent herewith is merely pro forma language, and I conclude that, in these circumstances, this scant language is insufficient to convince one that the Board considered all the evidence on the record as a whole. Such an omission, in the circumstances here, makes the Board's decision deficient as a matter of law. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 160(e) (1976). V 68 In short, in my view, substantial evidence supports the view that the substantial or motivating, Transportation Management Corp., 103 S.Ct. at 2474, reason for discharging Doklia, Blechar and Moss was to discourage union activity. Therefore, I would grant the Union's petition for reversal of the Board's decision and remand for reinstatement of the ALJ's finding that Howard Press violated sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the NLRA. Further, also I would reverse the Board's finding that a Gissel bargaining order was not warranted.