Opinion ID: 419828
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Full Complement Issue

Text: 19 Premium argues, however, that it is not a successor employer with a duty to bargain because at the time the Union demanded bargaining Premium had not yet hired its full complement of employees. 20 The full complement standard has its origin in dictum in NLRB v. Burns International Security Services, Inc., 406 U.S. 272, 92 S.Ct. 1571, 32 L.Ed.2d 61 (1972). The Supreme Court stated that in some situations, it may not be clear until the successor employer has hired his full complement of employees that he has a duty to bargain with a union, since it will not be evident until then that the bargaining representative represents a majority of the employees in the unit .... Id. at 295, 92 S.Ct. at 1568. Where a new employer has hired some former employees represented by the union, and some new employees not so represented, the employer's duty to bargain depends on whether a majority of the employees in the unit wish to be represented by the union. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 159(a) (1976) (section 9(a) of the Act). The right of the majority is paramount. Pacific Hide & Fur Depot, 553 F.2d at 612. 21 The full complement standard attempts to define when the makeup of the controlling majority is to be determined. Id. The count need not be delayed until the employer has completed the hiring of all employees in the bargaining unit. The determination of whether a full complement exists involves striking a balance between the objective of allowing the maximum number of employees a voice in selecting their bargaining representative and the goal of assuring that the employees have representation as quickly as possible. NLRB v. Pre-Engineered Bldg. Products, Inc., 603 F.2d 134, 136 (10th Cir.1979). 22 In non-successor cases involving the original election of a bargaining representative for an expanding unit, the Board has required a substantial complement, representative of the skills and types of employees who will ultimately constitute the unit. See St. John of God Hospital, Inc., 260 N.L.R.B. No. 117 (1982); Clement-Blythe Companies, 182 N.L.R.B. 502 (1970), enf'd, 77 L.R.R.M. 2373 (4th Cir.1971). The substantial and representative standard embodies the balance between early representation and maximum participation that lies at the heart of the full complement concept. 6 See NLRB v. Pre-Engineered Bldg. Products, Inc., 603 F.2d at 136 and n. 1. It is thus appropriate to apply the substantial and representative standard in successor employer cases such as this. 7 23 In determining whether a substantial and representative complement was present on a given date, the Board considers whether the job classifications designated for the operation were filled or substantially filled and whether the operation was in normal or substantially normal production. Hayes Coal Co., 197 N.L.R.B. 1162, 1163 (1972). The Board also takes into account the size of the complement on that date and the time expected to elapse before a substantially larger complement would be at work, Clement-Blythe Companies, 182 N.L.R.B. at 502, as well as the relative certainty of the employer's expected expansion, see St. John of God Hospital, Inc., 260 N.L.R.B. No. 117 (1982). 24 If a substantial increase in the size of the employee complement is expected with reasonable certainty in a relatively short time, a delay in counting the majority is appropriate. In Pacific Hide & Fur Depot, Inc., 553 F.2d at 610, 611, the employer reached a full complement in less than sixty days. During that time the complement expanded steadily as planned, from seven at the beginning of operations to nineteen, just one more than the complement of the predecessor when it ceased operations. Thus, the delay was short, and the increase in the number of workers to be represented was significant. In St. John of God Hospital, 260 N.L.R.B. No. 117 (1982), the Board allowed the employer four to five months to reach a representative complement in its registered nurse unit, where the employer expected a five-fold increase in the number of registered nurses in that time. The Board found that the employer's plans for expansion were not speculative, for while the hospital employed only four registered nurses at the time of the administrative hearing, it had provided in its budget for twenty-nine, had made some hiring commitments, and had embarked in a recruiting campaign expected to result in the hiring of seventeen to twenty registered nurses within five months. 25 In the case of a successor employer, the condition of the predecessor and the size of its complement are relevant considerations. Where a successor takes over a business which has essentially collapsed, so that the successor must rebuild both production demand and work force, it may take some time to achieve a full complement. NLRB v. Pre-Engineered Bldg. Products, Inc., 603 F.2d 134, 136 (10th Cir.1979) (predecessor moribund; successor had only four employees, predecessor as many as forty-one). On the other hand, where the successor takes over from a business in full operation, even if the successor has plans for expansion, a representative complement is usually present on the date the new employer begins production. See NLRB v. Hudson River Aggregates, Inc., 639 F.2d 865, 870 (2nd Cir.1981) (predecessor healthy; successor's complement comparable to number employed by predecessor when it sold the business). 26 Here, the ALJ found that Premium did not employ a full complement of workers when it began operations on August 4 or in the days immediately following. He found, however, that a representative complement was achieved by August 26, the date that the Union requested bargaining. 27 Premium contends that the company was not able to operate profitably with only nine employees, including Anderson, and notes that the complement for Swift in normal times was twelve to thirteen. Premium argues that Swift was moribund and that more than three weeks were required to rebuild business. Racicot had plans for expansion, and expected Premium to take up to two years to reach full profitable production, with an ultimate complement of eighteen. Nonetheless, Premium suggests that an appropriate date for determining the status of a majority of its workers would be January 26, 1981, when the workforce, including Anderson, reached twelve. 8 28 Premium began operations with five rank-and-file employees, plus Anderson. During the first three weeks of operation, several new workers were hired; others resigned or were fired. By August 26 the workforce had stabilized at eight rank-and-file employees, plus Anderson. On that date, all of Swift's job classifications were substantially filled. Premium was able to continue operations with this complement for the next five months, until the introduction of a new product required hiring additional workers. 29 While Premium did not take over an on-going business, continuing its operations essentially unchanged, as was the case in Hudson River Aggregates, neither was Swift moribund as was the predecessor in Pre-Engineered Bldg. Products. Swift served 230 customers at the time it closed, approximately half of whom continued to patronize Premium. There was no significant hiatus in production. Swift closed on Friday, August 1, and Premium started up on Monday, August 4. The complement on August 26 was the same size as Swift's complement when it closed, 9 and differed by only three or four workers from Swift's unit in ordinary times. 10 30 While Premium's president planned to expand operations, an employer cannot always delay its bargaining obligations until it has expanded its business to the proportions contemplated when it purchased the enterprise. Hudson River Aggregates, 639 F.2d at 870. The time expected to reach the planned expanded production was two years, too great a time to delay employee representation. 11 On August 26, plans for future hiring were uncertain, since additional hiring would depend on increased sales. On that date, Premium was not engaged in immediate recruiting or hiring as were the employers in Pacific Hide and St. John of God Hospital. The number of employees in the unit remained constant for the next five months, and nothing in the record indicates that the one full-time and two part-time workers added in January, 1981, brought new or different skills to the unit which would render the previous complement unrepresentative. 31 There is thus substantial evidence in the record as a whole to support the finding of the ALJ and the Board that on August 26 Premium employed a substantial and representative complement. Since five of the eight rank-and-file employees in the bargaining unit on that date were former Swift employees, such workers formed a majority of Premium's workforce, and Premium had a duty to bargain with the Union.