Court Opinion

ID: 9462571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:44:09.593261+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:39.226525
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my opinion the unfair labor practice charge filed by the Company is barred by reason of Section 10(b) of the National Labor Relations Act.
The Board found that the Union had committed an unfair labor practice within the meaning of Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Act by restraining and coercing the Company in the selection of its representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining and adjustment of grievances. The restraint and coercion took the form of the Union’s levying a disciplinary fine against the Company superintendent, Raymond Schulist, and filing an action to collect it.
The fine was levied September 30, 1972 by a trial committee of the Union after notice had been served on Schulist ordering him to appear before the committee to answer a formal complaint for violating the “no contract, no work” rule. Schulist did not appear at the trial. He was not formally notified of either the verdict or the fine, except that in June 1973, eight months after the levying of the fine, he was served with a summons issued in an action filed in a Wisconsin state court to collect the fine.
I
The Board contends that neither Schulist nor the Company learned of the result of the Union trial until the state court action was started and that, since the August 1973 unfair labor practice charge was filed within six months from the date the civil suit was filed, the charge was not barred by time.
Although Schulist was not given formal notice that a fine had been levied until he received a summons in a civil suit, he was fully aware that a fine was a possibility. He made no inquiry about the result of the trial even though he was aware that similar fines had been levied in reference to the same labor dispute. Under these circumstances, it was his obligation to find out the result of the trial if the result later was to be the basis of a charge lodged with the Board by the Company. In my opinion he had constructive knowledge of the fact that a fine had been levied. (In this situation Schulist’s failure to inquire was binding on the Company.) There was no obligation under the circumstances on the part of the Union to notify Schulist that a fine had been levied against him. Yet, the Board’s stress of the fact that Schulist received no notice of the fine seems to imply that the Union did have such an obligation and that its failure to give prompt notice tolled the *55statute. It is significant that there is no evidence of any concealment of the fact' that a fine had been levied or that knowledge of the fine had deliberately been kept from Schulist.
II
The Union contends and the Board agrees that its suit to collect the fine cannot be an independent violation of section 8(b)(1)(B) when the fine was levied more than six months prior to the filing of the unfair labor practice charge. In support of its contention it cites the Supreme Court’s decision in Local Lodge No. 1424, Int’l Assoc. of Machinists, AFL-CIO v. NLRB, 362 U.S. 411, 80 S.Ct. 822, 4 L.Ed.2d 832 (1960).
In an attempt to avoid the impact of that decision the Board in its brief says:
The Union’s reliance upon Local Lodge No. 1424, I.A.M. v. N.L.R.B., (Bryan Mfg.), 362 U.S. 411, 80 S.Ct. 822, 4 L.Ed.2d 832 (1960) in support of its Section 10(b) contention is misplaced for that case is clearly distinguishable from the situation presented here.' Bryan holds that an action within the Section 10(b) period will not be adjudged an unfair labor practice if the action can be termed unlawful only through reference to events occurring outside the Section 10(b) period. Bryan might be relevant to the instant case if the Board had found the September 1972 fine to be outside the Section 10(b) period but had nonetheless found the June 1973 lawsuit to be an unfair labor practice through reference to the September 1972 fine. The Board however, found that the September 1972 fine was itself within the Section 10(b) period because Schulist did not learn the fine until June 1973.
Although the Board disclaims the suit to collect the fine was an independent violation of section 8(b)(1)(B), its disclaimer is contrary to the Board’s Supplemental Decision and Order. The decision reads in part:
On June 7, 1974, the National Labor Relations Board issued a Decision and Order in the above-entitled proceeding in which the Board adopted the findings and conclusions of the Administrative Law Judge. ... In his Decision, the Administrative Law Judge concluded, inter alia, that Respondent violated Section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Act by fining Supervisor Schulist for failing to comply with its “no contract-no work” order, and by thereafter instituting action against Schulist in an attempt to collect the fine, (emphasis added.)
Moreover the use of the commencement of the civil suit as the start of the six month period necessarily means that the Board adopts the theory that a civil suit to collect a disciplinary fine is an independent violation of section 8(b)(1)(B).
Machinist Local is apposite and controls the disposition of this proceeding. In that case a collective bargaining contract containing a “union security” clause had been entered into at a time when the union represented less than a majority of the employees. Since, under the circumstances, the security clause was illegal, complaints of unfair labor practices were filed with the Board against the company and the union. The Supreme Court held that the complaints were time barred because the complaints, although charging continuing enforcement of the illegal clause, were not filed within six months of the date of the agreement. In the course of his opinion Mr. Justice Harlan, speaking for the court, wrote:
In any real sense, then, the complaints in this case are “based upon” the unlawful execution of the agreement, for its enforcement, though continuing, is a continuing violation solely by reason of circumstances existing only at the date of execution. To justify reliance on those circumstances on the ground that the maintenance in effect of the agreement is a continuing violation is to support a lifting of the limitations bar by a characterization which becomes apt only when that bar has already been lifted. Put another way, if the § 10(b) proviso is to be given *56effect, the enforcement, as distinguished from the execution, of such an agreement as this constitutes a suable unfair labor practice only for six months following the making of the agreement.
In the proceeding before us the charge “in any real sense” was based on the fine. The suit for its collection was “manifestly not independent of the legality of [the fine],” 362 U.S. at 423, 80 S.Ct. at 830, 4 L.Ed.2d at 841. The suit vis-a-vis an action to collect a sum due and owing was benign.
A holding that a civil suit to collect a disciplinary fine levied by a union can be deemed to be an independent violation of section 8(b)(1)(B) without reference to when the fine was levied, would permit a charge similar to the one here to be filed within six months of the time the civil action was started so long as it was filed within a state statute of limitations. Such a holding would defeat the very purpose of section 10(b) of the Act — to provide for a speedy resolution of labor-management disputes. Reference to the applicable Wisconsin statutes furnishes some idea of its likely impact: section 893.19(3), Wisconsin Statutes, provides for a six year statute of limitations in contract actions and section 893.16(2), Wisconsin Statutes, provides for a twenty year statute of limitations in cases involving a sealed instrument. Regardless of whether the six year or twenty year provisions would apply in the instant situation the salutary purposes of section 10(b) would be completely emasculated.
I would deny enforcement.