Opinion ID: 564767
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Enquirer's Wage Proposal as a Refusal to Bargain in Good Faith

Text: 23 The complaint in this case alleged that the Enquirer's negotiating position amounted to a refusal to bargain in good faith. The only indication of bad faith identified in the complaint was the Enquirer's bargaining position in favor of merit wages and a no-strike clause and against arbitration. When counsel for the General Counsel concluded his opening statement by explaining, [I]t is our position ... that [the Enquirer's] insistence--the proposals they made with respect to wages, arbitration, and a strike, amounted to a per se refusal to bargain on their part, the ALJ specifically queried, Per se? The General Counsel confirmed the point: Per se violative, because they were insisting on the unilateral right to determine employees' wages. It is frivolous for the Guild to contend, therefore, that the ALJ and the Board somehow erred in taking the General Counsel's theory of the case to be that the Enquirer's bargaining position amounted to a per se violation of the Act. 24 This should be the end of the matter, for the courts have held that the Act precludes almost any argument that a particular bargaining position constitutes an unfair labor practice per se. As the Board and the ALJ recognized in this case, the Supreme Court has long held that the Board may not, either directly or indirectly, compel concessions or otherwise sit in judgment upon the substantive terms of collective bargaining agreements. NLRB v. American Nat'l Ins. Co., 343 U.S. 395, 404, 72 S.Ct. 824, 829, 96 L.Ed. 1027 (1952), quoted in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Inc., 298 N.L.R.B. No. 41, ALJ dec. at 6. In American National the Supreme Court refused to enforce a Board order forbidding an employer to insist upon a provision whereby the [employer] reserves to itself the right to take unilateral action with respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other terms and conditions of employment, id. 343 U.S. at 400 n. 5, 72 S.Ct. at 827 n. 5, a provision that the Board had treated as a per se refusal to bargain in good faith. The Court said: 25 Whether a contract should contain a clause fixing standards for such matters as work scheduling or should provide for more flexible treatment of such matters is an issue for determination across the bargaining table, not by the Board.... [T]he extent of union and management participation in the administration of such matters is itself a condition of employment to be settled by bargaining. 26 Accordingly, we reject the Board's holding that bargaining for the management functions clause proposed by respondent was, per se, an unfair labor practice. 27 Id. at 409, 72 S.Ct. at 832. See also H.K. Porter Co. v. NLRB, 397 U.S. 99, 90 S.Ct. 821, 25 L.Ed.2d 146 (1970) (reversing Board order that employer, which unquestionably failed to bargain in good faith, agree to dues check-off: while the Board does have power ... to require employers and employees to negotiate, it is without power to compel a company or a union to agree to any substantive contractual provision of a collective bargaining agreement). 28 Even in the wake of H.K. Porter, though, the Board occasionally found that an employer's bargaining position amounted to a per se refusal to bargain in good faith. The courts of appeals have been skeptical at best. See, e.g., Struthers Wells Corp. v. NLRB, 721 F.2d 465 (3d Cir.1983) (refusing to enforce Board order finding unfair labor practice in company's insistence upon merit pay and other contract proposals); Tex-Tan Welhausen Co., 172 N.L.R.B. 851 (1968) (bargaining order), enforced, 419 F.2d 1265 (5th Cir.1969), vacated & remanded, 397 U.S. 819, 90 S.Ct. 1516, 25 L.Ed.2d 805 (for reconsideration in light of H.K. Porter), enforced in part & enforcement denied in part, 434 F.2d 405 (5th Cir.1970) (enforced with respect to employer bargaining misconduct, but not as to its insistence upon certain wage-related positions, which Board had treated as per se violations). 29 The Board now seems to have accepted the courts' repeated teaching that an employer's bargaining position is not itself bad faith but only evidence of bad faith, so that a finding of bad faith bargaining must be bolstered by additional evidence. In Marina Associates, 296 N.L.R.B. No. 147 (Oct. 5, 1989), the Board clearly established that even an employer's insistence upon total control over all wages can be only one part of [a] pattern of conduct on which the Board can base a finding of failure to bargain in good faith. Id., slip op. at 1 n. 1. The pattern of employer conduct in that case included unilaterally changing the work schedule; misrepresenting and withholding information in bargaining; offering to institute a benefit system that would have discriminated against union members, openly and for that purpose; discouraging the union from accepting the employer's own offer; and proposing a merit wage system that would have excluded the union from the raise-setting procedure and made such wage decisions non-grievable. See also Colorado-Ute Elec. Ass'n, Inc., 295 N.L.R.B. No. 67 (June 15, 1989) (employer may insist upon merit wage system in course of bargaining but may not grant increases without consulting with the Union[ ]), pet. for review pending, No. 89-9545 (10th Cir.); S-B Mfg. Co., 270 N.L.R.B. 485 (1984) (across-the-board increase granted unilaterally after impasse revealed sham nature of earlier insistence upon merit system). Compare NLRB v. Blevins Popcorn Co., 659 F.2d 1173, 1187-88 (D.C.Cir.1981) (insistence upon harsh proposal may be evidence of bad faith) with Teamsters Local Union No. 515 v. NLRB, 906 F.2d 719, 727 (D.C.Cir.1990) (Adamant insistence on a bargaining position ... is not itself a refusal to bargain in good faith.) (quoting Chevron Oil Co., Standard Oil of Tex. Div. v. NLRB, 442 F.2d 1067, 1072 (5th Cir.1971)). 30 Scrambling to support its argument that the Board may treat an employer's negotiating posture as bad faith bargaining per se--indeed that the court should compel such a finding--the Guild lights upon our recent decision in Toledo Typographical Union No. 63 v. NLRB (Toledo Blade Co.), 907 F.2d 1220 (D.C.Cir.1990). In Toledo Blade we held that an employer could not insist to impasse upon a clause that excluded the union from participation in direct dealing between the employer and individual employees on a significant compensation issue. That decision, however, was predicated on the employer's having insisted upon a non-mandatory subject of bargaining--namely, that the union agree to give up its right to act as the employees' bargaining representative in negotiations with the employer. Unlike the management rights clause at issue in American National or the merit increase proposal in this case, the proposal in Toledo Blade would have deprived the employees of their right to have their representative bargain for them over a mandatory subject, the terms of retirement and separation incentives. By intrud[ing] into the relationship between the employees and their Union, the clause at issue in Toledo Blade interfered with the employees' right to bargain collectively. Id. at 1223. Although an employer might insist to impasse upon retaining unilateral authority to set certain terms and conditions of employment, we held that it could not go to impasse over whether it has to deal with the union. Id. at 1224. See A-1 King Size Sandwiches, 265 N.L.R.B. 850 (1982), enforced, 732 F.2d 872 (11th Cir.1984) (refusal to give the Union any voice whatsoever concerning [several] mandatory subjects of bargaining). 31 In this case, the Enquirer insisted only upon (1) an individualized wage increase structure, (2) a no-strike clause (on which it later showed some willingness to move), and (3) restriction of the grievance system to a four-step negotiation process that culminated in bargaining with the editor of the Enquirer rather than in arbitration. Although the Enquirer certainly sought a greater role for itself, and a lesser role for the Union, with respect to employee compensation and the resolution of day-to-day disputes, the Employer did not propose to strip the Union of its collective bargaining function. The Enquirer was willing to negotiate with the Guild on the content of the merit pay plan, and to let the Guild represent any employee who wanted to challenge his proposed wage increase through the grievance procedure. These concessions would have preserved the Guild's role as the collective bargaining agent of its members, which is what distinguishes this case from Toledo Blade.