Opinion ID: 532737
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: decertification petition

Text: 14 Finally, the Company contends that the Board erred in failing to consider the decertification petition filed by a Company employee as evidence of employee dissatisfaction with the merger election. However, the decertification petition was not filed until two months after the disputed election. There is no indication that the petition stemmed from dissatisfaction with the election, and no further evidence of dissatisfaction in the record; nor does the record indicate how many employees joined in the petition. 6 The Company's refusal to bargain, moreover, intervened between the election and the petition, and thus could have influenced employee attitudes towards the union. See Franks Bros. Co. v. NLRB, 321 U.S. 702, 704, 64 S.Ct. 817, 818, 88 L.Ed. 1020 (1944) (unfair labor practices may discourage union membership). Absent further evidence of employee dissatisfaction associated with the merger election and separable from the effects of the Company's refusal to bargain, it was appropriate for the Board to disregard the decertification petition when assessing the effect of the merger on the union's collective bargaining status. See NLRB v. Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp., 775 F.2d 425, 433 (1st Cir.1985), aff'd, 482 U.S. 27, 107 S.Ct. 2225, 96 L.Ed.2d 22 (1987) (upholding ALJ's refusal to consider at unfair labor practice hearing decertification petitions filed after refusal to bargain because no useful purpose is served by permitting the employer to defend the propriety of an earlier refusal to bargain by relying on subsequent events that had nothing to do with the refusal). 15 Finally, the Board properly ordered bargaining rather than a new election, given twin factors: (1) cause to doubt whether the petition accurately reflected employee dissatisfaction with the merger; and (2) the continuing hazard that the Company's refusal to bargain might influence the outcome of a second election. Cf. St. Agnes Medical Center v. NLRB, 871 F.2d 137, 147 (D.C.Cir.1989) (remanding bargaining order for examination of effect of employer's unfair labor practices on decertification election where decertification petition preceded unfair practices); Peoples Gas System, Inc. v. NLRB, 629 F.2d 35, 50 (D.C.Cir.1980) (ordering election rather than bargaining where loss of support for union had been clearly demonstrated in an election free from unfair labor practices).