Opinion ID: 383736
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Direction to the Board on Remand

Text: 57 Having established that the Board has this remedial authority, we must remand for the Board to consider in the first instance whether the facts in this case rise to the outrageous and pervasive conduct which sanctions the issuance of such bargaining orders. 58 We are mindful of the fact that in this case the employer's conduct has been egregious to the extreme. We recognize that the Board has already found the following: Officials of United Dairy illegally threatened on at least five occasions that they would close the plant if the employees voted for the Union. On at least four occasions officials illegally professed to know for whom the employees were voting. They illegally threatened that the company would fire employees who voted for the Union and that the farmers would smash their heads in if the Union won. In a prior case, they had made similar illegal threats and fired a leading supporter of the Union. In this case, they again followed through on the threats by illegally firing a leading supporter of the Union immediately before the petition for an election, and later, after the election, by forcibly converting all of the employees to independent contractors with the purpose of bringing them outside the protection of the Act. Those six who refused the change were illegally fired. Despite all of United Dairy's efforts, the Union lost by only two votes. This type of persistent management conduct evidences a patent disregard for the right of the employees to a free and uncoerced selection of a bargaining representative that is matched by few reported cases. At this stage, however, we will not make a determination as to whether the conduct is outrageous and pervasive as specified in Gissel. It is for the Board, not the courts ... to make (these) determination(s) based on its expert estimate as to the effects on the election process of unfair labor practices of varying intensity. NLRB v. Gissel, 395 U.S. at 612, n.32, 89 S.Ct. at 1939, n.32. We therefore remand the case for the Board to make the prerequisite finding as to whether the facts of this case embody the critical elements that would justify the issuance of a Gissel bargaining order. Compare Hedstrom v. NLRB, at 312; (reviewing type of cases which have justified issuance of bargaining order when union possessed card majority); Electrical Products Division of Midland-Ross v. NLRB, 617 F.2d at 987 (same); Rapid Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, 612 F.2d at 149-50 (same).