Opinion ID: 9544
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Refusal To Provide Discovery Information.

Text: Asarco argues that the witness list requested from it was equally accessible to the Union. Asarco contends that it did not have a duty to provide the list in the present case because the Union already had access to the information it needed to process the grievance through arbitration. Halford already knew the identities of the people who witnessed the water bag incident and the identities of the employees interviewed by Thompson, Bryant, McLean, and Owsley. As the Union's president, he had access to the telephone numbers and addresses of those individuals. The ALJ found that Asarco had a duty to provide information to the Union which would help it handle Halford's grievance. Asarco has a duty to provide discovery-type data that is relevant and will be used by the Union in fulfilling its statutory obligations. The ALJ rejected Asarco's excuse for not producing the lists of information readily available to the Union. The ALJ concluded that the identities of the witnesses the Union intended to use in handling the grievance were only in the minds of Asarco's officials. We agree that Asarco has violated the Act by failing to comply with the request for information. The law clearly establishes that Asarco had a duty to produce to the Union requested information which was relevant and needed to handle grievances. See NLRB v. Acme Indus. Co., 385 U.S. 432, 435-36, 87 S.Ct. 565, 567-68, 17 L.Ed.2d 495 (1967); NLRB v. Leonard B. Hebert, Jr. & Co., 696 F.2d 20 1120, 1124 (5th Cir.1983); and NLRB v. J.P. Stevens & Co., 538 F.2d 1152, 1164-65 (5th Cir.1976). Asarco's excuse that it withheld the documents because Halford knew who had witnessed the incident and who had been interviewed is unpersuasive. The Union wanted to know the identities of the witnesses Asarco would use in handling the grievance. Halford could not assume that the company would use all of the people who witnessed the incident. Further, he did not necessarily know all of the people whom the company interviewed regarding the grievance. We find that the Board's request was relevant to the discharge of its duties. Therefore, we hold that the Board correctly found that Asarco violated the Act by ignoring the discovery request. 2. Refusal To Deal With Halford After his Discharge. Asarco argues that after Halford's discharge, it continued to recognize him as the Union president. Asarco met with Halford several times to discuss collective bargaining issues after Halford's discharge. Halford continued to participate in grievance meetings. Further, Asarco noted that the two events to which Halford was denied access had nothing to do with Halford's duties as the Union president. Asarco maintains that its treatment of Halford was consistent with his status as a discharged employee. On the other hand, the NLRB argues that only upon proof of extraordinary circumstances demonstrating that the designated representative presents a clear and present danger to the collective bargaining process, can the employer refuse to deal with the employees' designated agent. Further, the NLRB argues that 21 Halford's discharge status did not justify the exclusion. The ALJ found that because Asarco refused to deal with Halford as it had done for years, Asarco violated section 8(a)(5) of the NLRB Act. We disagree. Though the NLRA guarantees employees the right to choose their own representative, see 29 U.S.C. §§ 157, 159, it does not require the union representative's presence at non-union functions. If Asarco feared that Halford would disrupt the plant's production or would jeopardize the bargaining process, it had to prove special circumstances justifying Halford's exclusion from any collective bargaining events at issue. See General Elec. Co. v. NLRB, 388 F.2d 213, 214 (6th Cir.1968).6 We agree with our sister circuits that an employer may only exclude the Union's chosen representative from union activities, even where the representative has been discharged, when it proves special circumstances, demonstrating that the representative's presence 6 In General Electric, although the employer denied the former union president admission to the plant's production areas after discharge, the court found no violation of section 8(a)(5) because special circumstances absolved the employer from dealing with the union's designated representative. 388 F.2d at 214. The court found the employer's reservations reasonable because the former president's past actions, which resulted in a planned employee work slowdown, made him untrustworthy. The past actions led the employer to believe that the former president's admission to the production areas might cause employees to cease work and interfere with production. See also, NLRB v. Indiana & Michigan Elec. Co., 599 F.2d 185, 190 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1014, 100 S.Ct. 663, 62 L.Ed.2d 643 (1980) (absent extraordinary circumstances, an employer violates section 8(a)(5) by refusing to deal with the union's selected representatives); and General Elec., 412 F.2d at 517 (requiring that the employer prove that the chosen representative's presence creates a clear and present danger to the collective bargaining process). 22 will jeopardize the company's business enterprise or the bargaining process. However, in the present case, we do not reach the special circumstances inquiry as the Board suggests. The special circumstances inquiry only arises when the union's rights are violated, that is when the union's representative is excluded from an activity expressly covered by the NLRA or the union agreement. We find that the events of which Halford complains are not union activities. Halford first complains that Asarco violated the NLRA by excluding him from an OSHA inspection. Nothing in the OSHA regulations or collective bargaining agreement requires Halford to accompany the OSHA representative on an inspection. Further, we find that Halford's own testimony proves that the inspection did not require his presence as the Union's representative. During Halford's cross-examination, he testified that the Union had a joint safety committee that is appointed by him as the Union president. The joint safety committee conducts tours with the company in three designated areas of the plant. Only if the safety committee representatives find a problem that cannot be resolved by them do they bring it to Halford's attention to remedy. Halford conceded that, as president, he had delegated the duty of making plant inspections to the designated safety representatives. The record does not contain testimony demonstrating that Halford deviated from this policy of delegating the responsibility of attending OSHA inspections. Halford also complains that Asarco violated the NLRA by 23 excluding him from a meeting scheduled to welcome an Asarco official to the company. We find that the meeting was primarily social in nature and did not include collective bargaining discussions. The ALJ concluded that Asarco violated the Act because it had reneged on a previously arranged agreement to allow Halford's attendance. The record does not support this conclusion. The record does not demonstrate any long-standing practice, that might be called a custom, in which the Union's president routinely was invited to socialize or otherwise visit informally with Asarco's out-of-town officials. Our conclusion that Halford's complaints do not involve union activities precludes a finding that Asarco violated the Union's rights. Because union activities are not implicated, Halford's complaints are purely personal and not protected by section 8(a)(5). Asarco had no obligation to permit Halford, an individual, to participate in the kinds of non-union events at issue here after he has been validly terminated, regardless of his elected union office. Moreover, once validly discharged as an Asarco employee, Halford could not raise his individual complaints. We conclude that the ALJ's finding that Asarco violated the Act by refusing to bargain with Halford is not supported by substantial evidence in the record. We therefore hold that Asarco did not violate sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) by excluding Halford, the Union president, from non-union functions after a valid discharge.