Opinion ID: 1192930
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Recognition of union

Text: New Process also appeals from the Board's order forcing it to recognize the IAM as a valid collective bargaining representative for employees in the Butler plant. New Process withdrew recognition from the union on September 12, 2007 because it had received an employee decertification petition protesting what the employees saw as excessive give-backs in the contract and an objectionable ratification procedure. The Board determined that the company could not withdraw recognition from the union so long as a valid collective bargaining agreement was in effect. The contract bar rule prevents an employer from petitioning for decertification of a union as an exclusive bargaining representative during the life of a collective bargaining agreement, and one consequence of that rule is that an employer cannot withdraw recognition from the union, either. See Auciello Iron Works v. NLRB, 517 U.S. 781, 785, 116 S.Ct. 1754, 135 L.Ed.2d 64 (1996); see also NLRB v. Dominick's Finer Foods, Inc., 28 F.3d 678, 683 (7th Cir.1994). Because of the contract bar, this issue turns on the validity of the collective bargaining agreement. If the agreement was valid, then the contract bar prohibited New Process from withdrawing recognition from the union. If not, then the company was free to do so. Here, since we affirm the Board's determination that New Process and the union entered into a valid one-year collective bargaining agreement in August 2007, we affirm the Board's determination that New Process wrongfully withdrew recognition from the union in September 2007.