Opinion ID: 484259
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Relevant Unit For Determining Union Support; Repudiation

Text: 41 The district court determined that the AGC was the proper unit for assessing Union status and that A & P had not shown that the Union did not enjoy majority status in that unit. As a result of A & P's assignment of its rights to the AGC, the court held that A & P could not repudiate the agreements as prehire agreements and was fully liable under them. We disagree, finding instead, for the reasons discussed below, that A & P was the relevant unit for determining union support. Therefore, since there was no Union majority status in A & P, the agreements remained repudiable prehire agreements. 42 The parties did not fully brief the threshold question of whether section 8(f) can be invoked after an employer has assigned its bargaining rights to an MEBU in which the majority of the employees are presumably represented by the Union. In turn, the district court did not elaborate on the reasoning underlying its conclusion that the MEBU was the relevant bargaining unit but merely cited McNeff v. Todd, 461 U.S. 260, 103 S.Ct. 1753, 75 L.Ed.2d 830 (1983), and NLRB v. Tahoe Nugget, Inc., 584 F.2d 293 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 921, 99 S.Ct. 2847, 61 L.Ed.2d 290 (1979), to support its holding. McNeff, however, simply stands for the proposition that a section 8(f) prehire agreement, prior to repudiation, is enforceable under section 301 against an employer by a union that has not established majority support in the relevant unit. McNeff, 461 U.S. at 266, 103 S.Ct. at 1756. The Court did not directly address the question of the relevant bargaining unit, although policy concerns raised by the Court suggest that the relevant unit would be the single employer. The two policy considerations discussed by the Court are (1) the workers' right to select their own bargaining representative and (2) Congress' intent that section 8(f) agreements be arrived at voluntarily and remain voidable. 461 U.S. at 268-69, 103 S.Ct. at 1757-58. Such concerns are not served by a conclusion that the MEBU, rather than A & P, is the unit in which majority status is measured. Such a conclusion would permit a construction industry employer unilaterally to determine the exclusive bargaining representative of its employees by signing a pact with an MEBU. The union party to the MEBU's collective bargaining agreement would then become the employees' sole representative whether or not it established majority status, and the agreement would become nonrepudiable. This result ignores Congress' intent under section 8(f) to carve out only a limited exception from the majority status requirement for collective bargaining and denies democratic choice to the workers. McNeff at 268-69, 103 S.Ct. at 1757-58. 43 McNeff also points out that [o]ne factor prompting Congress to enact Sec. 8(f) was the uniquely temporary, transitory and sometimes seasonal nature of much of the employment in the construction industry. Congress recognized that construction industry unions often would not be able to establish majority support with respect to many bargaining units. Id. at 266, 103 S.Ct. at 1756. We read this statement as addressing and extending only to the McNeff determination that unions need not establish majority support in the relevant unit before attempting to enforce monetary obligations assumed by an employer under a prehire agreement. 8 The statement should not be read to prevent the employer from repudiating the agreement at any time prior to the union's establishment of majority support as to that employer, even in the case of a project-by-project employer such as A & P. See, e.g., Jordan & Nobles Constr. Co. v. New Mexico Dist. Council of Carpenters, 802 F.2d 1253 (10th Cir.1986); Painters Local Union No. 164 v. Epley, 764 F.2d 1509 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 1636, 90 L.Ed.2d 182 (1986). 44 The district court also incorrectly extended the holding of NLRB v. Tahoe Nugget, Inc., 584 F.2d 293 (9th Cir.1978) to this case. Admittedly, the courts may imply majority union support among an employer's workforce when a non-construction employer joins an MEBU and continue to imply it after the employer leaves the MEBU. NLRB v. Tahoe Nugget, Inc.; see also NLRB v. Roger's I.G.A., Inc., 605 F.2d 1164 (10th Cir.1979) (once an employer has joined an MEBU, then a presumption of majority union support continues, until rebutted, even after withdrawal from the MEBU). However, this is not the case with a construction employer who can invoke section 8(f). Section 8(f) specifically permits an employer in the construction industry to enter into a prehire agreement when majority support for the union has not been established. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(f). The act of joining an MEBU does not imply or establish majority support among the employees of the individual employer, since such a finding would negate Congress' intent to allow repudiation of prehire bargaining agreements in the construction industry. See McNeff, 461 U.S. at 266-67, 103 S.Ct. at 1756-57 (citing NLRB v. Local 103, Int'l Ass'n of Bridge Workers (Higdon), 434 U.S. 335, 346, 98 S.Ct. 651, 658, 54 L.Ed.2d 586 (1978) (entering a prehire agreement does not make a union the representative of an employer's employees)). Nor can a presumption of continued majority support even after withdrawal arise in this case, since majority support was never shown to exist. 45 We find support for our position concerning the appropriate unit for determining union majority support in the Fifth Circuit's decision in Baton Rouge Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council v. E.C. Schafer Constr. Co., 657 F.2d 806 (5th Cir. Unit A Oct. 1981). In Schafer, the employer initially signed prehire agreements with the Carpenters', Operating Engineers', and Laborers' unions. Subsequently, the employer authorized an MEBU to represent it in future negotiations with the Carpenters' and Operating Engineers' unions. Upon failure of the employer to comply with the agreement negotiated by the MEBU, the Carpenters' Union brought suit for failure, among other things, to make required pension fund contributions. The Fifth Circuit, reversing the district court's decision that the employer had merged with the MEBU, held that absent employee assent, the employer's joining the MEBU could not ipso facto transform the employer's prehire agreements into collective bargaining agreements. The court stated: 46 The trial court concluded that the February 6 letter [MEBU authorization form] effectively merged the company with the other member companies of the Associated General Contractors as one large bargaining unit. Thenceforth, it became irrelevant whether a majority of Schafer's employees favored the union so long as a majority of those employed by the Associated General Contractors were union people. Upon that merger into the multiemployer bargaining unit, the relevant unit for determination of union majority became that multiemployer workforce. Since there was no substantial doubt about the union sympathies of that larger body of workers, the prehire agreements thereby matured into collective bargaining agreements. 47 The district court's analysis assumes what is not the case; that an employer, by its action alone and without the acquiescence of its employees, can commit itself to membership in an MEBU. 48 657 F.2d at 810 (footnotes omitted). Implicit in that statement is the conclusion that the relevant unit for determining union majority support is the individual employer's workforce, not the multiemployer workforce. In the case of A & P, since there was no showing of union majority support in A & P, the agreements at issue were in reality prehire agreements with respect to A & P and remained subject to repudiation. 49 The Trustees in the case before us contend that Schafer 's rationale concerning the appropriate unit for determining majority support is invalid in light of McNeff. The Trustees cite an Eleventh Circuit case, Trustees of the Atlanta Ironworkers v. Southern Stress Wire Corp., 724 F.2d 1458 (11th Cir.1983), which concluded that McNeff overruled the Eleventh Circuit's result in Laborers Dist. Council v. McDowell Contractors, 680 F.2d 94 (11th Cir.1982) (per curiam), which had, in turn, relied on NLRB v. Haberman Const. Co., 641 F.2d 351 (5th Cir. Apr. 1981) (en banc ). Therefore, the argument goes, since Schafer relied on McDowell and Haberman, Schafer must have been overruled as well. 50 We disagree. First, we conclude that only the portion of Schafer relying on McDowell and Haberman was overruled by McNeff. Thus, only Schafer 's holding that majority status was a prerequisite to the enforcement by a union of prehire agreements is negated. Second, the Eleventh Circuit's determination in Southern Stress that its previous holding in McDowell (and, by implication, the Haberman decision) had been overruled by McNeff did not extend to the issue of the appropriate unit for determining majority support. Thus, the cases relied upon by the Trustees have no application to the issue before us. The Trustees simply ignore the dual aspects of Schafer and assume that because McNeff overruled McDowell and Haberman, which supported an unrelated aspect of the Schafer decision, somehow the related portion of Schafer was also overruled. 51 Finally, the Trustees' analysis fails to recognize that McNeff expressly permits an employer to repudiate a prehire agreement at any time prior to the establishment of majority support in the relevant unit. McNeff, 461 U.S. at 269, 103 S.Ct. at 1758. Where a construction employer desires to enter into agreements with a union under section 8(f), whether such construction industry employer joins an MEBU after signing a separate prehire agreement, as in Schafer, or does so without signing a separate prehire agreement, as in this case, does not change the union status of the employer's workforce. Therefore, where a union lacks majority support in that workforce, the employer retains the right to repudiate that agreement under section 8(f). Thus in our case, what may have been a true collective bargaining agreement between other members of the AGC and the Union was only a prehire agreement between A & P and the Union subject to repudiation under 8(f). 52 We conclude that the district court erred in determining that the appropriate unit for assessing union support was the AGC rather than A & P. Absent employee assent, we cannot accept the view that assignment of a construction employer's rights to an MEBU effects a merger, transforming prehire agreements into nonrepudiable contracts on the basis of presumed union majority status in the multiemployer work force. See Schafer, 657 F.2d at 813. We therefore reverse that portion of the district court's decision. 53 Furthermore, we hold that the letters on or about November 14, 1980, disavowing any contract with the Union at seven specific worksites, constituted a repudiation on their face and, therefore, A & P is not liable for any payments under the contract after its repudiation.