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

Heading: The Extent of the Employer's Insistence Upon Unilateral Control of Wages

Text: 19 Although the ALJ found that the Enquirer insisted upon the power unilaterally to determine all wages, the Board found that the General Counsel had proven only that the Enquirer insisted upon unilateral control of wage increases, as opposed to wage reductions or the initial wages of newly hired employees. The Guild claims that the Board's finding is not supported by substantial evidence. We disagree. 20 Throughout the bargaining process, the Guild insisted upon a comprehensive wage scale system for old and new employees alike. Although there is some evidence that the [Enquirer's] initial wage proposal ... contemplated unilateral control of new hires' wages, 298 N.L.R.B. No. 41, slip op. at 2, the Guild made no narrower counterproposal that might have isolated the Enquirer's supposed insistence upon unilateral control of the wages of new hires. As the Board noted, the Union did not explicitly reject this aspect of the proposal, but sought only to obtain further information on this item. Id. at 2 n. 2. The Board found that, instead, the parties focused primarily on the Respondent's specific purpose to unilaterally control wage increases. Id. at 2. Nor do we find anything in the record to establish that the Enquirer was unwilling to yield on the issue of minimum salaries for new hires in exchange for a concession elsewhere. Accordingly we find that the Board rationally concluded that the General Counsel failed to carry her burden on this point. 21 The Enquirer's proposal never specifically addressed the possibility of wage reductions, and again the Guild did nothing to isolate and press the question whether the Employer was demanding the right unilaterally to reduce wages. In fact, the issue does not appear even to have been broached during bargaining. Consequently, we affirm the Board's finding that the General Counsel failed to carry her burden to establish that the Enquirer insisted upon unilateral control of wage reductions. 22