Opinion ID: 419828
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Successor Employer Issue

Text: 15 A new employer who conducts essentially the same business as the former employer, and who hires former employees of his predecessor as a majority of his work force is considered a successor employer. Westwood Import Co., 681 F.2d at 667; Kallmann v. NLRB, 640 F.2d 1094, 1100 (9th Cir.1981). Where a union has been recognized or certified as the representative of the employees of the predecessor, and the successor hires a majority of his workers from those employees, a presumption arises that the successor's employees also support the union. 5 Westwood Import Co., 681 F.2d at 668; Pacific Hide & Fur Depot, Inc. v. NLRB, 553 F.2d 609, 611 (9th Cir.1977). The basic rationale is that a mere change in ownership, without an essential change in working conditions, would not be likely to change employee attitudes toward representation. See NLRB v. Burns International Security Services, Inc., 406 U.S. 272, 278-79, 92 S.Ct. 1571, 1577, 32 L.Ed.2d 61 (1972); NLRB v. Band-Age, Inc., 534 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 921, 97 S.Ct. 318, 50 L.Ed.2d 288 (1976). 16 Premium contends that the scope and nature of its business differs fundamentally from that of Swift. It points out that only sixty percent of the business at Swift's Spokane plant was to food service customers, whereas ninety-eight percent of Premium's sales were in the food service area. There is no evidence, however, that this change in emphasis caused any essential change in the employees' working conditions. Former Swift employees working for Premium did essentially the same jobs following the change in employer. Although Premium introduced a new product line, the employees used the same skills and tools as before. See NLRB v. Middleboro Fire Apparatus, Inc., 590 F.2d 4, 7-8 (1st Cir.1978); NLRB v. Band-Age, Inc., 534 F.2d at 6. 17 Premium points out that Swift was a large multi-national corporation, and that management decisions emanated from the Chicago office, whereas Premium was a small, locally owned and managed company. Such a change does not prevent the new employer from being a successor where the nature of the employing industry is basically unchanged. See Zim's Foodliner, Inc. v. NLRB, 495 F.2d, 1131, 1142 (7th Cir.) (change in employer from national grocery chain to individual supermarket unlikely to significantly affect employee attitudes), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 838, 95 S.Ct. 66, 42 L.Ed.2d 65 (1974). The Swift bargaining unit had been composed of workers at the Spokane plant only; the change in employers did not affect the size or definition of the unit. Although upper-level management changed, Racicot and Anderson provided some carry-over in supervisory personnel. 18 Premium's employees performed essentially the same work, in the same plant, with the same equipment as before, under supervisors who were known to them. Thus, substantial evidence supports the finding that there was no essential change in the business that would have affected employee attitudes towards representation.