Opinion ID: 778881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: CREP and Sandusky and the definition of discrimination

Text: 35 This Court has discussed the Babcock & Wilcox holding regarding discrimination in Sandusky and CREP. In CREP, 95 F.3d 457, the union began a handbill campaign against Marc's, a retail store and one of the tenants in a strip mall managed by CREP. Id. at 459. The handbills conveyed that Marc's had violated child labor laws and that worms were found in boxes of raisins the store sold. Id. The purpose of the handbills was to inform the public that Marc's was a non-union store and to ask the public not to shop there. Id. at 460. After Marc's complained to the property manager, steps were taken to have the handbillers cease their boycotting activities. Eventually, the property manager called the police one day when the handbillers had refused to leave, because they were in violation of the city ordinance against loitering. Id. at 461. 36 The union filed an unfair labor practices charge against CREP, and an ALJ found that in the past, the Salvation Army had been allowed to distribute leaflets on windshields of cars parked at the mall. The ALJ further found that political candidates had been allowed to solicit signatures and the Girl Scouts had sold cookies. Other groups allowed to solicit without being asked to leave included the Knights of Columbus, the Boy Scouts, veterans, and school children selling candy for various school projects. Id. The ALJ found that the union organizers were engaged in a protected activity under the NLRA and found it irrelevant that the handbillers were not employed by Marc's inasmuch as they were employees of other unionized stores at the mall. Id. 37 This Court framed the issue as follows: [W]hether the owner of a private retail shopping mall may forbid union representatives from distributing handbills directed at shoppers to discourage them from patronizing a non-union retailer in the mall, while permitting non-labor related handbilling and solicitations by others in the mall without violating section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA. Id. at 461-62. The Court answered the question in the affirmative. Id. The Court held that the owner of private commercial premises may forbid handbilling by nonemployee union organizers engaged in non-organizational, informational activity directed at the general public.... Id. at 464. Relying on Lechmere, the Court held that the only exception to this rule is where the union shows that it is entitled to trespass on the owner's private property because the inaccessibility to the general public to which the handbilling is directed makes ineffective the reasonable attempts by non-employees to communicate with [the public] through the usual channels. Id. (citing Lechmere, 502 U.S. at 537, 112 S.Ct. 841). 38 In CREP, the Board argued that Lechmere was not relevant inasmuch as Lechmere failed to analyze Babcock & Wilcox's discrimination exception, because CREP discriminated against the union by permitting other solicitation by charities. 4 Id. at 464. This Court disagreed that Lechmere did not apply, but more importantly for purposes of the instant case, it held that under Babcock & Wilcox and its progeny, such as Lechmere, which weigh heavily in favor of private property rights, the word discrimination does not carry the weight the Board ascribes to it. Id. at 465. The Court explained that [t]o discriminate in the enforcement of [an employer's] no-solicitation policy cannot mean that an employer commits an unfair labor practice if it allows the Girl Scouts to sell cookies, but is shielded from the effect of the Act if it prohibits them from doing so. Id. The Court recognized that since Babcock & Wilcox was decided, the Supreme Court had never clarified the term discriminate. Id. Further, while this Court in CREP acknowledged that we generally should be respectful of the Board's interpretation of the term discrimination, this Court also explained that the Board's decision is owed no deference where it rests on erroneous legal foundations. Id. In that vein, this Court held that [n]o relevant labor policies are advanced by requiring employers to prohibit charitable solicitations in order to preserve the right to exclude nonemployee distribution of union literature when access to the target audience is otherwise available. Id. The Court noted that the purpose of Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA is to prevent employers from interfering with employees' Section 7 rights. Id. Bearing such considerations in mind, the Court reasoned that: 39 An owner of a private commercial property who permits a charitable organization to distribute information or conduct solicitations on its property simply does not implicate the policies of the NLRA and does not, without more, render an employer guilty of an unfair labor practice when later it chooses to follow the general rule of validly post[ing its] property against nonemployee distribution of union literature. 40 Id. (citing Babcock, 351 U.S. at 112, 76 S.Ct. 679). 41 Such considerations led this Court to hold that the term discrimination, as used in Babcock & Wilcox, means favoring one union over another, or allowing employer-related information while barring similar union-related information. Id. 42 In Sandusky, this Court again addressed the discrimination exception in Babcock & Wilcox. The union in Sandusky began a picketing campaign after a store in a mall hired a non-union construction contractor and threatened to handbill another mall tenant for the same reason. 242 F.3d at 684. Sandusky, which owned and operated the mall, notified the union that handbillers would be considered trespassers and that they would be asked to leave. Id. The handbillers distributed handbills in the mall on several occasions and were asked to leave each time. Finally, the mall manager called the police and had the handbillers arrested. Id. at 685. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Sandusky, and the Board found that Sandusky had violated the NLRA. Id. 43 On appeal, the Court addressed the specific issue of whether Sandusky may be compelled to permit non-union employee union members to trespass on the mall's property for the purpose of distributing handbills urging mall customers not to patronize non-union employers. Id. Relying on CREP, the Court in Sandusky answered the question in the affirmative. Accord Riesbeck Food Markets, Inc. v. NLRB, No. 95-1766, 95-1917, 1996 WL 405224, at  (4th Cir. July 19, 1996) (holding that employer did not discriminate against union when it allowed charities on its property to solicit contributions, but would not allow non-employee union representatives to engage in do not patronize solicitation targeted at the employer); NLRB v. Pay Less Drug Stores Northwest, Inc., No. 94-702279, 1995 WL 323832 (9th Cir. May 25, 1995) (holding that mall did not discriminate against union when it allowed Girl Scouts and bloodmobile on mall property while not allowing picketing non-employee representatives). 44 The holdings in CREP and Sandusky that an employer does not discriminate against a union where the employer allows charities to disseminate information on the employer's property while it bars unions from doing the same, without more, appears to foreclose the Board's argument that discrimination occurred in this case. It is uncontested that Albertson's only allowed certain charities to solicit donations around the exterior of its property, except in inclement weather when it allowed the Girl Scouts and Salvation Army bell ringers access to the inside of some its stores. There is no evidence in this case that during the time Albertson's refused to allow Local 555 non-employee organizers to distribute literature on its property, Albertson's allowed distribution by another union or that Albertson's, itself, disseminated information similar to that it banned Local 555 from disseminating. CREP, 95 F.3d at 465. Therefore under the definition of the term discrimination as set forth by this Court in CREP and reaffirmed in Sandusky, no discrimination occurred in this case. 5 45 While acknowledging that the definition of the term discrimination as set forth in CREP and Sandusky is a narrow one, the Board contends that this Court is not bound by those cases because this Court subsequently has limited their holdings to situations involving a union's economic attack against an employer, and not, as here, where the union is engaging in organizing activity. Further, the Board contends that the discussion regarding the definition of discrimination in Sandusky and CREP was merely dicta. While the Board is correct that a panel of this Court distinguished CREP in a case decided subsequent to CREP, as explained below, the distinction is not as far sweeping as the Board contends.