Court Opinion

ID: 9475623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:33:04.563675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:49.566104
License: Public Domain

EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
Because of the deference due to decisions of the NLRB, I concur in the court’s judgment as it deals with Mr. Hoback. Notwithstanding the deference due to NLRB decisions, I conclude that Mr. Lambert was lawfully disciplined by his employer; and I dissent from the court’s judgment as it deals with Mr. Lambert.
The issue in this case is not whether employees can wear union insignia at the jobsite; they can. Nor is the issue whether *1013employers can always prevent employees from using company property for union purposes; they cannot. The issue is whether the NLRB evaluates a case properly when it gives no weight to property rights in balancing the rights of employees and employers. In my view, the answer to that question is clearly “no.”
In this case the question is not one of fact, but of a proper balance to be struck between conflicting interests. As the Supreme Court said in NLRB v. Brown, 380 U.S. 278, 291-92, 85 S.Ct. 980, 988, 13 L.Ed.2d 839 (1965):
Reviewing courts are not obliged to stand aside and rubber-stamp their af-firmance of administrative decisions that they deem inconsistent with a statutory mandate or that frustrate the congressional policy underlying a statute. Such review is always properly within the judicial province, and courts would abdicate their responsibility if they did not fully review such administrative decisions.
Instead of balancing the employees’ interest in organizing against the company’s property interest, the NLRB and the majority here give no weight to the fact that the company owned the safety helmets. All the precedents cited by the NLRB involving union insignia1 are distinguishable on this fact: none involve union insignia displayed on company-owned safety equipment where the union was not discriminated against and the wearing of union insignia was generally allowed. Moreover, the NLRB at oral argument bluntly contended that the company’s property interest in the safety helmets makes no difference. This argument goes too far and is unjustified by judicial precedent or by Congressional intent.2 Although 'company ownership of the helmets may not be, in and of itself, the determinative factor, surely it counts for something. It is a circumstance that must be given substantial weight.
As a general proposition, I believe that a company has a right to preserve and control its own property.3 If a company adopts a rule in the exercise of its property rights without any intention of curtailing union activities, its employees face a significant burden of proving that that rule infringes on their rights. They might meet that burden, for example, by proving that the rule effectively closed all available forums by which employees could show their union allegiance. In the instant case, no one even contends such a thing.
*1014It is important that both parties agree that the underlying requirement that employees wear company-owned helmets was not motivated by anti-union sentiments. The rule requiring the wearing of company-owned helmets predates the union organizational efforts and is designed to assure OSHA4 compliance — a fact not contested by the NLRB. The NLRB does not dispute that such a step to assure OSHA compliance reflects a legitimate business interest. Furthermore, employees were allowed to display union insignia on their person just as they pleased except on the company’s helmet. It is also undisputed that the company treated union decals no differently, certainly no worse, than any other decal on company helmets. “With the Company permitting ... various sizes and kinds of insignia to be worn, it cannot be maintained that the Company’s rule prohibiting the wearing of decals [on hard hats] deprived the employees of the right to identify themselves with the Union for purposes of organizing other employees.... Certainly the rule in this case did not restrain or interfere with any employee’s right to show his allegiance to other employees....” Standard Oil Co. of California, 168 N.L.R.B. No. 28 (1967). Accord Andrews Wire Corp., 189 N.L.R.B. 108 (1971).
Because no weight was given to property rights, the balance that the NLRB struck here was erroneous. No judicial precedent supports giving property rights such short shrift. Moreover, Congress has never indicated any intention to ignore completely a property owner’s interest in its personal property. Nor can it be maintained that the company’s rule deprived its employees of any right to identify themselves with the union. This is a case where an employer required employees to wear a distinctive piece of employer-owned safety equipment, prohibited them from placing any sort of insignia on that equipment, enforced that rule without regard to the content of the insignia, and placed absolutely no prohibition on the display of union insignia on employee clothing.
As a matter of law, I believe the NLRB’s evaluation of the relative strength of the competing interests was wrong, unsupported, arbitrary, and irrational; and I agree with the administrative law judge who tried this case and with the Chairman of the NLRB, who dissented from the Board’s decision, that the no-decal-on-helmets rule is not an unfair labor practice. Accordingly, Malta’s termination of Mr. Lambert’s employment was justified.
I would decline to enforce the NLRB order to the extent that it deals with Mr. Lambert’s case.

. The NLRB appears to have a history of overreaching on this point. Actually, the NLRB has rarely, if ever, met with success in court concerning display of union insignia where the employer’s rule was not a total ban. See Burger King Corp. v. NLRB, 725 F.2d 1053 (6th Cir.1984) (enforcement of NLRB order denied—union insignia on company-owned uniform); Midstate Tel. Corp. v. NLRB, 706 F.2d 401, 403 (2d.Cir.1983), (enforcement of NLRB order denied—insignia on employees’ own clothing); Fabri-Tek, Inc. v. NLRB, 352 F.2d 577 (8th Cir.1965) (enforcement of NLRB order denied—insignia worn on employee’s clothing); NLRB v. Hurrah’s Club, 337 F.2d 177 (9th Cir.1964) (enforcement of NLRB order denied—union insignia on company owned uniforms); Davison-Paxon Co. v. NLRB, 462 F.2d 364 (5th Cir.1972) (enforcement of NLRB order denied); cf. NLRB v. Floridan Hotel of Tampa, Inc., 318 F.2d 545 (5th Cir.1963) (total ban on wearing membership insignia not allowed). The present case seems stronger for the employer than any of these.

. In listening to the NLRB’s lawyer orally argue this case and equate this case with one in which the employee owned the helmet, I could not help but note how far we have come. “Liberty, property, and no stamps'. It had been the first slogan of the American Revolution.” C. Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia, The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787 at 70 (1966). I know that our views about property rights have changed since the nation was founded, but it still concerns me to hear how little such rights seem to mean to some governmental agencies.

. There are, of course, a number of cases in which employees have been allowed to use the employer’s real property, i.e., jobsites, to distribute organizing literature. Freedom of employees to communicate with one another on the jobsite is viewed as essential to their rights to organize; thus, property rights do not always prevail. But, the Supreme Court has made it plain that employer property rights are significant and due some protection. See NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U.S. 105, 76 S.Ct. 679, 684, 100 L.Ed. 975 (1956) (reversing order of NLRB).

. Occupational Safety & Health Act, Pub.L. 91-596, 84 Stat. 1590 (1970); see also 29 U.S.C.A. sec. 655 (1985). The NLRB has upheld no-decal-on-helmets rules on safety grounds. See Andrew Wire Corp., 189 N.L.R.B. 108 (1971).