Opinion ID: 383736
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Analysis of the Meaning of Gissel

Text: 46 A basic purpose of the Act is to protect the selection of union bargaining representatives by a majority of the employees in a free and uncoerced manner. Section 7, 29 U.S.C. § 157, guarantees that employees have the right to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, or to refrain from such activity. Section 9(a), 29 U.S.C. § 159(a), specifies further that representatives designated or selected ... by the majority of the employees in a unit ... shall be the exclusive representatives of all the employees. 47 Since the employer has disproportionate economic power, however, the right of employees to select a majority representative can only be assured by careful restrictions on employer actions and statements. (W)hat is basically at stake, the Court in Gissel observed, is the establishment of a non-permanent, limited relationship between the employer, his economically dependent employee and his union agent, not the election of legislators or the enactment of legislation whereby that relationship is ultimately defined and where the independent voter may be freer to listen more objectively and employers as a class freer to talk. 395 U.S. at 617-18, 89 S.Ct. at 1942. Absent legal intervention, many employers have the capability, by threat or exercise of economic power, to coerce the employees' choice of a representative. Thus, Sections 8(a)(1) and (3) generally make it an unfair labor practice for an employer to commit acts or make statements that would illegitimately undermine the employees' free choice. When the employer has illegally intervened, Section 10(c) gives the Board broad remedial authority to undo the effects of the employer violations and assure an uncoerced selection by the employees. See, e. g., Fibreboard Paper Products Corp. v. NLRB, 379 U.S. 203, 216, 85 S.Ct. 398, 406, 13 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964). The contours of this authority are the subject of this case. 48 Normally, the remedial actions undertaken by the Board are intended to assure that future elections of all the employees will properly reflect the uncoerced will of the majority. The Court has noted the acknowledged superiority of the election process as a method for selecting a majority representative of employees, Gissel, 395 U.S. at 602, 89 S.Ct. at 1934, and upheld the Board's decision granting employers the right to demand, in the absence of prior unfair labor practice, a certification election to test support for the union. Linden Lumber Div. Summer & Co. v. NLRB, 419 U.S. 301, 95 S.Ct. 429, 42 L.Ed.2d 465 (1974). 14 Thus, when the employer has committed minor or less extensive unfair labor practices, which, because of their minimal impact on the election machinery, do not unalterably undermine employee free choice in a future election, the Act, as interpreted in Gissel, relies on alternative remedies for restoring the laboratory conditions of the election process. Violation in these cases will not sustain a bargaining order. 395 U.S. at 615, 89 S.Ct. at 1940. Alternate remedies such as cease and desist orders and reinstatement assure the attainment of uncoerced majority preference, and, in so doing, deter employer violations intended to undermine that choice. 49 The rationale for selecting bargaining representatives by certification election evaporates, however, when the employer has committed such serious unfair labor practices that the laboratory conditions of the past election, as well as any election in the immediate future, are destroyed. In these circumstances, because of the employer's attempt to undermine employee free choice, the goal of a free uninhibited certification election simply cannot be attained regardless of the reparative actions that may be attempted by the Board. Other means to protect employees must be pursued. 50 This need was initially recognized by the Supreme Court in Gissel when it held that Section 9(a)'s requirement that representatives be designated or selected by a majority of the employees did not preclude determination of majority will by means other than elections. 395 U.S. at 603, 89 S.Ct. at 1934. The Court explicitly recognized the authority of the Board to issue a bargaining order when it finds that the possibility of erasing the effects of past practices and ensuring a fair election (or a fair rerun) by the use of traditional remedies, though present, is slight and that employee sentiment once expressed through cards would, on balance, be better protected by a bargaining order ... Id. at 614-15, 89 S.Ct. at 1940. The Act required the Board to choose the process-card majority or a rerun election-which better protected majority will. Card majorities, while conceded to be a less preferred indicia of majority preference than a certification election, see NLRB v. Gissel, 395 U.S. at 603, 89 S.Ct. at 1934; NLRB v. Savair Mfg. Co., 414 U.S. 270, 277, 94 S.Ct. 495, 499, 38 L.Ed.2d 495 (1973), could give a more accurate indication of majority support than a rerun election. Implementation of this subtle choice has resulted in numerous decisions of this court probing whether unfair labor practices identified by the Board are sufficiently serious to merit a bargaining order. See e. g., Hedstrom Co. v. NLRB, 629 F.2d 305 (3d Cir. 1980) (in banc); NLRB v. Garry Mfg. Co., 630 F.2d 934 (3d Cir. 1980); Electrical Products Division of Midland-Ross v. NLRB, 617 F.2d 997 (3d Cir. 1980); Rapid Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, 612 F.2d 144 (3d Cir. 1979); NLRB v. Daybreak Lodge Nursing & Convalescent Home, Inc., 585 F.2d 79 (3d Cir. 1978); NLRB v. Eagle Material Handling Inc., 558 F.2d 160 (3d Cir. 1977); NLRB v. Armcor Industries, 535 F.2d 239 (3d Cir. 1976). 51 In the present case we must examine the remedial authority of the Board when the unfair labor practices of the employer have destroyed, as in Gissel, the chance for a rerun election free of the taint of prior unfair labor practices. Here, however, the Board does not have the option of relying on a card majority to effectuate the will of a majority of the employees. The rationale adopted by the Supreme Court suggests that the mere absence of such indicia of majority support does not in itself preclude the issuance of a bargaining order by the Board. Gissel recognized that a rerun election would not reflect the majority will of employees when the employer had seriously tainted that process. Just as a card majority could provide a better basis for testing employee preferences, so in this case may a bargaining order better further overall employee sentiment when the union has not secured a card majority and the employer has seriously undermined the validity of a union election. 52 The failure to recognize the authority of the Board to issue bargaining orders in these circumstances would undermine the underlying goal of the Act to further the majority preference of all employees. Unions which would have attained a majority in a free and uncoerced election if the employer had not committed unfair labor practices would be deprived of recognition merely because of the employer's illegal conduct. 15 53 More generally, the absence of such authority might create incentives for employers to engage in illegal prophylactic action with the purpose of preventing the attainment of a card majority. The Supreme Court recognized the authority of the Board to act for comparable reasons in Franks Bros. Co. v. NLRB, 321 U.S. 702, 64 S.Ct. 817, 88 L.Ed. 1020 (1944), when it held that the dissipation of a union's majority after an employer unlawfully refused to bargain did not preclude the issuance by the Board of a bargaining order. In commenting on this decision in Gissel, the Court sanctioned the remedial authority of the Board in reducing such perverse incentives. 54 If the Board could enter only a cease-and-desist order and direct an election or a rerun, it would in effect be rewarding the employer and allowing him to profit from (his) own wrongful refusal to bargain, Franks Bros., 321 U.S. at 704 (64 S.Ct. at 818), while at the same time severely curtailing the employees' right freely to determine whether they desire a representative. The employer could continue to delay or disrupt the election processes and put off indefinitely his obligation to bargain; and any election held under these circumstances would not be likely to demonstrate the employees true, undistorted desires. 55 395 U.S. at 610-11, 89 S.Ct. at 1938. This court has similarly recognized the authority of the Board, in issuing a so-called Gissel II bargaining order, to ignore a possible dissipation of majority support through employee turnover after the unfair labor practice. (T)o require the Board to determine whether a continuing majority supports unionization, we observed, would be to put a premium upon continued litigation by the employer and allow the employer to avoid any bargaining obligation indefinitely. Hedstrom v. NLRB, 629 F.2d 305 at 312 (3d Cir. 1980) (in banc) (footnote omitted), quoting NLRB v. L. B. Foster Co., 418 F.2d 1, 4 (9th Cir. 1969). In this case, the authority of the Board to act, especially when the employer has committed flagrant and egregious unfair labor practices, should, as in Hedstrom,  'promote, and not impair, the legitimate interests of employees as a whole.'  Hedstrom, at 313, quoting Bok, The Regulation of Campaign Tactics in Representation Elections Under the National Labor Relations Act, 78 Harv.L.Rev. 38, 136 (1964). 56 To be sure this authority may only be exercised by the Board when the employer has committed outrageous and pervasive unfair labor practices. Only in these cases would the option of an uncoerced rerun election be clearly foreclosed. 16 Thus, we hold that the Board has the remedial authority to issue a bargaining order in the absence of a card majority and election victory if the employer has committed such outrageous and pervasive unfair labor practices that there is no reasonable possibility that a free and uncoerced election could be held.