Opinion ID: 389551
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Clerical Employees.

Text: 11 The NLRB's order to bargain with Local 618 primarily rests on the Board's admittedly novel theory that an employer violates section 8(a)(1) by hiring new employees solely for the purpose of destroying a union's majority status in the bargaining unit. The Board premises this theory on the view that discrimination in hiring is twin to discrimination in firing. Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U.S. 177, 187, 61 S.Ct. 845, 849, 85 L.Ed. 1271 (1941). Just as an employer may not discharge prounion employees to prevent them from voting in a Board election, neither should the employer be permitted to hire unnecessary antiunion employees for the purpose of diluting the voting strength of those employees already in the bargaining unit who support the union. 12 The Company answers that the Board cannot establish a violation of section 8(a)(1) upon a mere showing that an employer hired new employees solely for the purpose of destroying a union's majority status. To establish that the employer's addition of employees to the work force might dilute the union's majority status in the bargaining unit, the Board must also show that the new employees would be eligible to vote in the upcoming representation election under the Board's election rules and that these employees would likely vote against the union in a greater proportion than the existing employees in the bargaining unit. 13 We need not determine the merits of the Board's theory in this case because, in any event, the record does not support the Board's order to bargain with Local 618. To warrant the issuance of a bargaining order, the Board must find that 14 the possibility of erasing the effects of past practices and of ensuring a fair election (or a fair rerun) by the use of traditional remedies, though present, is slight and that employee sentiment once expressed through cards would, on balance, be better protected by a bargaining order. (NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., Inc., 395 U.S. 575, 614-15, 89 S.Ct. 1918, 1940-41, 23 L.Ed.2d 547 (1969).) 15 The record in this case contains no substantial evidence that the Company's addition of four clerical employees to the bargaining unit after Local 618 had obtained majority status through signed authorization cards so tainted the election process as to justify supplementing traditional remedies with a bargaining order. 16 The Board argues, however, that it could reasonably find that the Company's unlawful conduct against the salesmen would also affect the fairness of the clerical workers' representation election because the two units worked in close contact with each other. This argument may carry some validity under some circumstances, but in this case the Board's finding lacks substantial evidentiary support in the record. Accordingly, we deny enforcement of the Board's order to bargain with Local 618. 1 17