Opinion ID: 327189
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: was houston local 43 the successor of austin local 143?

Text: 14 Whether the Houston Local 43 was the successor to the Web Division of Austin Local 143 normally depends on a factual determination is it a continuation of the old union under a new name or is it a substantially different organization? NLRB v. Commercial Letter, Inc., 496 F.2d 35, 39 (8th Cir. 1974). Although the Board's union successorship doctrine has been invoked far less frequently than its employer successorship doctrine, 10 the union successorship doctrine has been upheld in a number of cases. NLRB v. Commercial Letter, Inc., supra ; Supak & Sons Manufacturing Corp., 1972 NLRB 1228 (1971) enforced 470 F.2d 998 (4th Cir. 1973); Canton Sign Co., 174 NLRB 906 (1969) enforcement denied on other grounds, 457 F.2d 832 (6th Cir. 1972); Retail Clerk's International Assoc. v. NLRB, 125 U.S.App.D.C. 389, 373 F.2d 655 (1967); NLRB v. Weyerhaeuser Co., 276 F.2d 865 (7th Cir. 1960) cert. denied 364 U.S. 879, 81 S.Ct. 168, 5 L.Ed.2d 102 (1960); Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. v. NLRB, 244 F.2d 672 (6th Cir. 1957); Carpinteria Lemon Assoc. v. NLRB, 240 F.2d 554 (9th Cir. 1957) cert. denied 354 U.S. 909, 77 S.Ct. 1295, 1 L.Ed.2d 1427 (1957). 15 The test of survival bargaining obligation in each case is whether the successor organization continues to constitute, in the words of the statute, the 'representative(s) of (the employees') own choosing.' (§ 7 of the Act.) The industrial stability sought by the Act would unnecessarily be disrupted if every union organizational adjustment were to result in displacement of the employer-bargaining representative relationship. 16 Canton Sign Co., supra, 174 NLRB 908-909. 11 17 A refusal to apply the successorship doctrine in many cases could easily result in a denial of the employees' rights to be represented by a union of their choice: here, for example, were Austin Local 143 to be held to be the only authorized representative of the Respondent's pressroom employees, as Respondent contends, the Employer would be obliged to bargain with the union to which none of its employees belonged indeed, a union which its employees unanimously voted to leave. 18 While the Board has not adopted any rigid requirements as to the method of the merger election, it has held that the election must be conducted under democratic procedures, with fair notice to all concerned employees; the election procedures must not be so lax or substantially irregular as to negate the validity of the election, NLRB v. Commercial Letter, Inc., supra, 496 F.2d at 42. The principal question is whether in fact the election represents the majority view of the members of the union. See Fall River House, Inc., 198 NLRB No. 164 (1972); Hamilton Tool Co., 190 NLRB No. 114 (1971). The Respondent does not dispute the fact that the election was conducted with fair notice to every member of the Web Division of Austin Local 143, and the vote taken was unanimous to merge with the Houston Local. Rather the Respondent argues that notice ought to have been given to every member of Austin Local 143, including the members of the Commercial Division. 19 This argument essentially overlaps with the Respondent's principal claim that the Board's successorship doctrine cannot apply to cases such as this one where only a section of a union merges with another, rather than the entire union. The Respondent relies principally on Harbor Carriers of the Port of New York v. NLRB, 306 F.2d 89 (2d Cir. 1962) cert. denied 372 U.S. 917, 83 S.Ct. 727, 9 L.Ed.2d 723 (1963) where the Court refused to apply the Board's union successorship doctrine when the previously recognized union divided, and the resulting two unions each contained a portion of the respondent's employees, and the new organization competed with the original union for the right to represent the employees. There the Court emphasized the fact that two competing organizations were claiming the right to represent the unit's employees, and secondly distinguished previous union successorship cases where the decision to merge with a second union was a unanimous one. In short, in Harbor Carriers a conflict between employees within a single bargaining unit resulted in two separate competing labor organizations. In this case, the Commercial Division of Austin Local 143 has never claimed the right to represent the Respondent's pressroom employees; there is no competing labor organization in the case, and there was no conflict among the unit's employees. Rather the entire Web Division unanimously elected to transfer to the Houston Local. Under these circumstances we see no reason why the Board's successorship doctrine ought not to apply it would accurately reflect the expressed wishes of the Web Division employees on the date of the merger, and it would promote stability in the bargaining relationship between the Respondent and its pressroom employees. 20 Thus while we recognize that this case involves the novel legal question as to whether different divisions of a single combination local may elect individually to merge with other locals, given the undisputed findings that the representative character of the bargaining agent, Canton Sign, supra, 174 NLRB at 908, was not altered by the merger, we agree with the Board that the Web Division of Houston Local 43 succeeds to the bargaining rights of the Web Division of Austin Local 143. We emphasize that we rely principally on the findings that the Web Division operated entirely separately from the Commercial Division when they were part of the same Austin Local, and the Web Division remained as a separate division after it transferred to the Houston Local the division continued to negotiate directly with the Employer, and the bargaining relationship remained unaltered until the Employer categorically refused to bargain. 21