Opinion ID: 6641619
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The UFCW Petition

Text: The UFCW petitions for review of the Board’s refusal to consider the union’s complaints of unfair labor practices in connection with Dubuque’s proposed relocation of its pork processing operation. Although the Board acknowledged that the union had presented claims concerning both proposed relocation decisions in UFCW I, it “deeline[d] to pass” on the pork processing claims “on the ground that [they] go beyond the scope of the issues remanded to us by the court of appeals.” Dubuque Packing, 303 N.L.R.B. at 392 n. 19. The Board supported this ruling by noting that (1) our discussion in the earlier opinion focused on the consummated relocation of the hog kill and cut operation, not the proposed relocation of the pork processing operation; (2) our review of issues to be determined on remand did not include the pork processing issues; and (3) any decision on these matters would raise “distinct issues” including “difficult remedial issue[s]” concerning the remedy for bargaining in bad faith over a proposed relocation that had been averted through a concessionary agreement. Id. The Board supposed that if we had wished it to address such issues we would have said so directly. On reviewing our earlier decision, we acknowledge that our ruling was not as explicit as it should have been. The Board concedes, however, that the union presented all of its claims in the earlier appeal and that we did not dispose of the pork processing relocation controversy at that time. It should have been evident, then, that when we remanded “this case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” TJFCW I, 880 F.2d at 1439, it was our intention to remand all of it. Accordingly, we grant the UFCW’s petition for review; we set aside that part of the Board’s order that declines to consider the UFCW’s claims of unfair labor practices in connection with Dubuque’s proposed pork processing relocation; and we remand that issue to the Board for a determination of its merits. Out of an excess of caution, we point out that this remand covers all properly preserved claims that have yet to be disposed of on their merits (our references to “900 pork processing” jobs have been intended as an identifier, not as a finding of fact). Also, as our earlier decision set aside the entirety of the Board’s first order, the Board should adjudicate these claims as they first appeared on its docket on appeal from the ALJ’s 1985 decision.