Opinion ID: 185263
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Information Request

Text: 26 Petitioner further challenges the Board's determination that it committed an unfair labor practice by failing to provide the Union with the information it requested. The Union's request, petitioner charges, was over broad and burdensome, and failed to indicate the relevance of the information sought. Petitioner further charges that the Union made its request in bad faith. These factors, petitioner maintains, justified a full hearing prior to the Board's determination that it committed an unfair labor practice. None of these claims has any merit. 27 The law is clear. An employees' bargaining representative is entitled to the sort of information requested by the Union in this case. Country Ford's failure to provide such information is a violation of the NLRA. See Detroit Edison Co. v. NLRB, 440 U.S. 301, 303 (1979) (The duty to bargain collectively, imposed upon an employer by S 8 (a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act includes a duty to provide relevant information needed by a labor union for the proper performance of its duties as the employees' bargaining representative.) (footnote omitted). If the NLRB Regional Director's initial unit determination is upheld, there is no basis for an employer to refuse a certified union's request for presumptively relevant information about represented employees. 28 Employees' certified representative is entitled to information that will enable[ ] the union to negotiate effectively and to perform properly its other duties as bargaining representative. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Local Union No. 6-418 v. NLRB, 711 F.2d 348, 358 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (internal quotes omitted). The information requested must be relevant to the union's representation, but the threshold for relevance is low. See NLRB v. Acme Industrial Co., 385 U.S. 432, 43738 (1967). Information related to the wages, benefits, hours, working conditions, etc. of represented employees is presumptively relevant to collective bargaining. See Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, 711 F.2d at 359. 29 The Union sought such information stating that it was needed for bargaining purposes, and Country Ford deliberately refused. Thus, NLRB properly concluded that the Company committed an unfair labor practice. Because the information requested was presumptively relevant for bargaining purposes, no further explanation was required. As this Court noted, the rationale underlying the presumptive relevance rule [is to] avoid[ ] ... 'potentially endless bickering ... over the specific relevance of information, the very nature of which ought to render its relevance obvious.'  Id. at 359 n.26 (quoting Emeryville Research Ctr., Shell Dev. Co. v. NLRB, 441 F.2d 880, 887 (9th Cir. 1971)). Vague allegations of a union's bad faith do not change the result. Under NLRB precedent, the good faith requirement is met so long as at least one reason for the demand can be justified.E.g., Island Creek Coal Co., 292 N.L.R.B. 480, 489 (1989) (citing Hawkins Constr. Co., 285 N.L.R.B. 1313 (1987), enf. denied on other grounds, 837 F.2d 1224 (8th Cir. 1988)), enforced, 899 F.2d 1222 (6th Cir. 1990) (unpublished table decision). 30 Even accepting, for the sake of argument, that the Union's request was over broad, this does not excuse the Company from providing the requested information to which the Union had an undisputed right. See, e.g., Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, 711 F.2d at 361 (citing Fawcett Printing Corp., 201 N.L.R.B. 964, 975 (1973)). That petitioner knew that it could satisfy the Union's information request by only providing information about bargaining unit employees is beyond dispute. After Country Ford initially refused to provide the requested information, Union counsel clarified that its request applied only to information about represented employees. Yet petitioner still refused to provide any information. The alleged over breadth of the Union's information request is also irrelevant because the Board only found that petitioner engaged in an unfair labor practice by failing to provide information about unit employees.