Court Opinion

ID: 9466529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:18:39.883127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:47.288438
License: Public Domain

HATCHETT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I concur with Judge Thornberry that this case cannot be decided on the statute of limitations issue.
I dissent, however, because I do not find that enforcement is barred by the six-month statute of limitations contained in § 10(b) of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 160(b). I believe that Judge Gee’s opinion misapplies *145Local Lodge No. 1424 v. NLRB, 362 U.S. 411, 80 S.Ct. 822, 4 L.Ed.2d 832 (1960), (hereinafter Bryan Manufacturing), and erroneously rejects the NLRB determination that the failure to execute a contract was an unfair labor practice.
Bryan Manufacturing says that any act, itself an unfair labor practice, occurring within the six-month limitations period, may use relevant evidence outside the six-month period. If, however, the act within the six-month period is not an unfair labor practice, it may not use unfair labor practices that occurred outside the limitations period.
In this instance, the NLRB, in affirming the conclusions of the administrative law judge, found Haskell’s failure to execute on the 30th of April an independent unfair labor practice. The NLRB found that all elements of the § 8(a)(5) violation — that the negotiating committee and the charging union reached contract terms and that Haskell refused to sign the contracts — occurred on or after the 30th of April within the § 10(b) period.
Because the NLRB found the 30th of April failure to execute an unfair labor practice, under Bryan Manufacturing, reliance on earlier events, whether unfair labor practices or not, is permissible, since the earlier events are merely evidentiary.
Thus, Judge Gee’s conclusion contradicts Bryan Manufacturing. The opinion presents no persuasive evidence as to why the NLRB’s conclusion should be rejected.
Even assuming that Haskell’s failure to execute on the 30th of April is not an unfair labor practice, in and of itself, the opinion wrongly applies Bryan Manufacturing.
It concludes:
Application of the bifurcated § 10(b) rule [Bryan Manufacturing] to the present case makes clear that Haskell’s failure to execute the collective bargaining agreements on or after April 30, 1976, standing alone, was wholly innocent. This conduct which occurred, within the limitations period, can be ruled an unfair labor practice only if it is first determined that Haskell was a member of the AGC multi-employer bargaining unit for the 1976 contract negotiations and that the company’s putative withdrawal from group bargaining, which transpired outside the § 10(b) time limits, was itself an unfair labor practice that was ineffective in relieving Haskell of its duty as an AGC member to implement the labor contracts. (Emphasis added)
This conclusion, ostensibly buttressed by a sound analysis of Bryan Manufacturing, is incorrect, because, here, there is no reliance on earlier unfair labor practices. Neither of the two factors, Haskell’s membership in the AGC and the withdrawal, deemed necessary to transform Haskell’s “wholly innocent” failure to execute into an unfair labor practice, are, in and of themselves, unfair labor practices.
The NLRB stated in its decision and order that an untimely withdrawal from multi-employer bargaining may not, in and of itself, constitute a violation of the Act. The administrative law judge determined that Haskell’s withdrawal was a legal nullity ineffectual to relieve Haskell from any agreement ultimately reached.
Therefore, the two factors, Haskell’s membership in AGC and the withdrawal, are merely evidentiary. These two factors do not serve “to cloak with illegality that which was otherwise lawful.” 362 U.S. at 417, 80 S.Ct. at 827.
Under this analysis, Haskell’s 30th of April failure to execute is transformed into an unfair labor practice by reference to “merely evidentiary” occurrences. The 30th of April failure to execute does not violate Bryan Manufacturing, because it does not derive its illegal character from earlier unfair labor practices.
Again, to hold as Judge Gee does, he must clearly state that the finding by the administrative law judge is wrong and that Haskell’s withdrawal was an unfair labor practice outside the § 10(b) limitation. Otherwise, Bryan Manufacturing is violated.
*146I agree with the NLRB’s decision that Haskell’s failure to execute and comply on the 30th of April or thereafter constituted an unfair labor practice within the meaning of § 8(a)(5) and (1) of the Act.
This view is valid under either the theory articulated by the administrative law judge in his decision and order or under the theory that Haskell was under a § 8(d) duty to sign some contract, sometime, and was correctly charged by the five unions with an unfair labor practice on the 30th of April. I find the latter theory preferable.
Regardless of the theory chosen, I do not see how enforcement action is barred by the six-month statute of limitations contained in § 10(b) of the Act.
I believe appellate courts should acquiesce to the specialized expertise of the NLRB and its administrative law judges, unless the weight of the evidence disputes their findings.