Opinion ID: 387055
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Board's Remedial Powers

Text: 28 The Board's choice of remedies is entitled to a high degree of deference. Congress was aware at the time of the Board's creation that the tangled employer-employee disputes arising from the substantive commands of the Act would demand a body with broad remedial powers. Section 10(c) of the Act directs the Board to issue an order requiring guilty parties to cease and desist from such unfair labor practice, and to take such affirmative action including reinstatement ... as will effectuate the policies of the Act. 29 U.S.C. § 160(c)(1976). With that kind of mandate, it is not surprising that the Supreme Court has consistently stressed that the Board's remedial power is a broad, discretionary one, subject to limited judicial review. Fibreboard Paper Products Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 379 U.S. 203, 216, 85 S.Ct. 398, 405, 13 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964). In fashioning its remedies, the Board draws on a fund of knowledge and expertise all its own, and its choice of remedy must therefore be given special respect by reviewing courts. N.L.R.B. v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 612 n.32, 89 S.Ct. 1918, 1939 n.32, 23 L.Ed.2d 547 (1969). 29 In the present case, the ALJ concluded that the unfair labor practices to which this Respondent resorted to kill off the union campaign with finality violent and outright discharge of seven persons within hours of the birth of the union campaign were 'so outrageous and pervasive'  that extraordinary measures were needed. J.A. 36. The Board agreed that the violations were numerous and egregious, J.A. 47, but balked at the bargaining remedy the ALJ had proposed. It then undertook the difficult task of formulating a set of remedies that would restore the employee confidence necessary to permit a free and untrammeled representation decision. 30 The Board imposed a series of remedial actions, designed to reassure interested parties of their rights and to assist the employees in hearing the Union's side of the story despite the lingering atmosphere of fear the Employer had created. J.A. 51. None of these actions are unprecedented; some are quite traditional. Yet, in the circumstances of this case, the efficacy of any one of the remedies standing alone is doubtful. We should not be quick to conclude that the presence of some remedies renders other superfluous. The Supreme Court has directed that the Board's order not be disturbed 'unless it can be shown that the order is a patent attempt to achieve ends other than those which can fairly be said to effectuate the policies of the Act.'  Fibreboard Paper Products Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 379 U.S. 203, 216, 85 S.Ct. 398, 405, 13 L.Ed.2d 233 (1964) (quoting Virginia Electric & Power Co. v. N.L.R.B., 319 U.S. 533, 540, 63 S.Ct. 1214, 1218, 87 L.Ed. 1568 (1943)). 31 Nevertheless, the Employer attacks the entire remedial scheme, arguing that it is not J.P. Stevens & Co., and that only a record of hardened recidivism could justify so much affirmative action. But an employer who strikes the first blow hard enough may not need to strike another. The measure of the Board's remedial power cannot depend solely on the length or frequency of the Employer's conduct: the crucial factor is the effect of that conduct on the employees. 8 32 Turning to the individual remedial steps ordered, we find that they can be loosely grouped into two classes: access remedies and notice remedies. The access remedies are designed to assist the Union in communicating with the employees, and to assist the employees in hearing the Union's side of the story without fear of retaliation. The notice remedies are intended to inform the employees of their statutory rights and the legal limits on the Employer's conduct, and to reassure them that further violations will not occur. We address each class of remedies in turn.