Opinion ID: 470969
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Legislative History of Secs. 8(a)(2) and 10(c) of the NLRA

Text: 40 While Congress was considering the proposed insertion of Sec. 302 in what would become the LMRA, the 1935 NLRA already contained a related provision. Section 8(2) of the 1935 NLRA, which in 1947 was renumbered Sec. 8(a)(2) of the NLRA, provided, as Sec. 8(a)(2) does now, that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it; however, the section also provided expressly that it did not prohibit an employer from permitting employees to confer with him during working hours without loss of time or pay. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(a)(2). In considering H.R. 3020's proposed amendments to the 1935 NLRA, Congress noted that many employers had taken an expanded view of Sec. 8(2) and allowed paid time to union officials to confer not only with the employer but as well with employees, and to transact other union business in the plant. H.R.Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 29 (1947). Paid time for these additional activities, however, generally was given only to officials of national or international unions and their local affiliates and was denied to officials of independent or company unions. Id. Indeed, the NLRB had sanctioned the expansion of paid time for officials of the former group of unions but not for officials of non-affiliated unions. H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 40 (1947), reprinted in 1947 U.S.Code Cong.Serv. 1146. 41 H.R. 3020 contained various proposals designed to amend the 1935 NLRA with respect to these paid-time expansions. These included a proposed modification of Sec. 8(2) that would have prohibited financial assistance to union officers only if that assistance was offered for the purpose of perverting [the union officer's] judgment or corrupting his conduct, H.R. 3020, as initially reported to the House, at 20, and a proposed amendment to Sec. 10(c) to bar the NLRB from issuing orders against independent unions that would not be issued in similar circumstances ... with respect to a labor organization national or international in scope, H.R. 3020, as initially reported to the House, at 39. The proposal advanced in S. 1126 (which the Senate passed as amendments to H.R. 3020) included no amendment to Sec. 8(2), but consisted simply of a proposed amendment to Sec. 10(c) that made it clear that the two types of unions should be treated the same. The Senate proposal required that 42 in determining whether a complaint shall issue under section 8(a)(1) or section 8(a)(2), and in deciding such cases, the same regulations and rules of decision shall apply irrespective of whether or not the labor organization affected is affiliated with a labor organization national or international in scope. 43 H.R. 3020, as amended by the Senate, at 95-96 (italics omitted). The conference committee subsequently adopted the Senate's approach. Thus, Sec. 101 of H.R. 3020 as adopted by Congress contained the Senate version of Sec. 10(c), and there was no amendment of Sec. 8(2). 44 BASF asks us to infer from these events that Congress disapproved of the expansion of paid time to union officials for union business other than attendance at meetings with management on the ground that Congress (a) did not adopt the House proposal to prohibit only payments made for the purpose of bribery, and (b) did not take that opportunity to insert in Sec. 8(a)(2) express authorization of payments for time to be spent on union-related business other than attendance at meetings with management. We conclude that the correct inference is precisely the opposite. The House Conference Report, explaining the conference committee's rejection of the House proposals and adoption of the Senate version as Sec. 101 of H.R. 3020, stated as follows: 45 The House bill amended section 8(2) ... for the purpose of according some protection to labor organizations which were not affiliated with one of the national or international labor organizations. This provision of the House bill had the effect of permitting an employer to do the same kinds of things for independent unions which the Board has permitted him to do for the affiliated unions. 46 .... 47 ... The Board has, for example, in the case of affiliated unions permitted employers to provide bulletin boards in their plants for the union's use, to give union officials preferred treatment in laying off workers and calling them back, and to allow shop stewards without losing pay to confer not only with the employer but with the employees as well, and to transact other union business in the plant. The Board has not permitted the employer to do the same things for nonaffiliated unions, and it was the purpose of the House provision to provide for equality of treatment in this respect. 48 H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 40 (1947) (emphasis added), reprinted in 1947 U.S.Code Cong.Serv. 1146. The report stated that Sec. 8(2) was not amended because the Senate version of Sec. 10(c) adequately dealt with these matters. Id. at 41, reprinted in 1947 U.S.Code Cong.Serv. at 1146. 49 This report makes it plain that the fact of the expansion of paid time to include union-related business other than attendance at meetings with management was not in the least disapproved by Congress. What Congress disapproved was the disparity in treatment of affiliated and nonaffiliated unions; the amendment eventually incorporated in H.R. 3020 was designed to require that nonaffiliated union officials be given the same privileges as affiliated union officials. The conference report makes clear that both branches of Congress envisioned that these privileges would continue to be the expanded ones granted in practice rather than solely the one of attendance at meetings with management provided in Sec. 8(2) and that the expanded privileges would become more widely available. 50 In light of Congress' manifested intent in adopting Sec. 101 of H.R. 3020 to increase the availability of expanded no-docking provisions similar to the one at issue here, we cannot reasonably conclude that Congress intended Sec. 302 of the same bill to ban such provisions.