Opinion ID: 512637
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Good Faith Bargaining

Text: 33 In its opinion, the Board majority found that the company had demonstrated an intent to avoid any agreement with the Union. According to the Board, the company demonstrated its lack of good faith by rigidly adhering to its proposals and using take-it-or-leave-it bargaining tactics. The Board also found objectionable the company's unlawful dealings with the committee. As in NLRB v. Advertisers Mfg. Co., it seems that [f]or the most part the company is merely disagreeing with the Board's evaluation of conflicting evidence and exercise of remedial discretion; the futility of such challenges requires no comment. 823 F.2d 1086, 1087-88 (7th Cir.1987). We will nevertheless consider the company's arguments. 34 The determination of whether a party has bargained in good faith must be based upon the totality of the circumstances. UAW Local No. 1712 v. NLRB, 732 F.2d 573, 578-79 (7th Cir.1984). Isolated instances of misconduct will not be viewed as a failure to bargain in good faith. Id. 35 In finding that the company refused to bargain in good faith, the Board relied primarily on the issue of wages and the company's dealings with the committee. Our consideration of these issues persuades us that the Board's conclusions finds substantial support in the record. 36 On May 9, 1977, before the parties commenced bargaining, the company gave notice of its intent to implement a wage increase at all of its stores, retroactive to May 1. The union consented to the inclusion of the Mooresville store employees in the wage increase. During negotiations, the company continued to rely on this tactic by presenting wage proposals to the union under threat of immediate implementation at all stores, with the proviso that the company would accede to the union's desire to withhold implementation of the increase at the Mooresville store represented by the union. The company made these proposals on November 11 and December 29, 1977, and April 28, 1978. The wage increases were immediately implemented at the three nonunion stores and, after some delay, unilaterally imposed nonretroactively at the Mooresville store. 37 These actions created a wage disparity between the company's represented and nonrepresented employees. The wage terms the company offered the union were based essentially on past practice and federal minimum wage laws and did not differ from the wage terms the employees would have received had there been no union representation. The Board agreed with the administrative law judge that 38 [a]side from the terms of the [wage] offers, [the company's] tactic of confronting the Union with them on an eleventh hour basis, with the characterization of 'last offer,' under self-serving declarations of impasse, and threats of implementation, was calculated to remove effectively from bargaining the wage issue. The Union was forced to either accept implementation, and thereby to acknowledge [the company's] right to unilaterally determine wage rates on a take it or leave it basis, or to accept the consequences of full or partial implementation. Indeed, [the company's] action, in having implemented its last minute December offer at the nonunion stores, and thereafter steadfastly opposing full retroactivity at Mooresville with respect to the very benefits grant [sic] elsewhere, strongly suggested an intent to subvert bargaining to ends inimical to statutory obligations. 39 Schwab Foods, Inc., 125 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 1225, 1226 (1987) (quoting administrative law judge's opinion). The company's tactics with regard to wage increases left the bargaining unit employees at an unquestionable disadvantage in relation to the nonunion employees. 40 The company's statements provide support for the finding that it did not engage in good faith bargaining. On December 29, 1977, the company told the union that if the union did not approve implementation of the wage increase for January 1, 1978, there would have to be some explanation to the employees as to why the raise was not given. On May 13, 1978, the company's attorney wrote to the union commenting unfavorably on the union's insistence that the Mooresville employees be paid less than the company's other employees, and stating that it just doesn't seem fair that the employees should be involved in the strategy of bargaining. This discrepancy would have been remediable had the company not refused to apply its January 1 wage increase retroactively to the Mooresville employees. The Board correctly believed that, when viewed in the context of the parties' bargaining, the company's approach to the wage issue showed evidence of a lack of good faith. 41 The Board also found that the company's dealings with the committee as if it were the authorized representative of its employees was another factor indicating that the company was not negotiating in good faith. See, e.g., NLRB v. Generac Corp., 354 F.2d 625, 628 (7th Cir.1965) (an employer manifests a lack of good faith when it engages in acts calculated to undermine a union's status as exclusive bargaining representative). An example of the company's differing conduct toward the committee and the union is its treatment of requests from both groups for a payroll checkoff. The union requested a payroll checkoff for the payment of union dues. The company refused, citing the increased administrative inconvenience of adding the checkoff to its bookkeeping procedures. At the same time, however, Crax and Fax reported that the company had responded favorably to the committee's request for a checkoff provision for employee contributions to a nonunion credit union. We agree that the Company's relationship with the committee was a factor that supported the Board's finding that the company failed to bargain in good faith.