Court Opinion

ID: 9473069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:18:40.837309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:18.096946
License: Public Domain

ADAMS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Although I am constrained to join the result reached by the majority, I write separately to express my uneasiness with the summary nature of the Board’s decision in this case. The question of the adequacy of justifications proffered for Gissel bargaining orders has sharply divided this .Court, and has caused us to go in banc four times in the last few years. See NLRB v. Keystone Pretzel Bakery, Inc., 696 F.2d 257 (3d Cir.1982) (in banc); NLRB v. Permanent Label Corp., 657 F.2d 512 (3d Cir.1981) (in banc); Hedstrom Co. v. NLRB, 629 F.2d 305 (3d Cir.1980) (in banc), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 996, 101 S.Ct. 1699, 68 L.Ed.2d 196 (1981); NLRB v. Armcor Industries, Inc., 588 F.2d 821 (3d Cir.1978) (unreported per curiam denying enforcement of bargaining order by an evenly divided vote). That fact alone should suggest to the Board that a Gissel order warrants more careful consideration, and a more detailed statement of reasons, than was given here.
The Board’s practice of simply adopting AU findings, without more, has been considered sufficient by our Court on at least two prior occasions. See, e.g., Permanent Label, 657 F.2d at 519; Kenworth Trucks of Philadelphia, Inc. v. NLRB, 580 F.2d 55, 61-63 (3d Cir.1978). Nevertheless, I submit that even though it is not legally required to do so, the Board would be well-advised to undertake some independent consideration and to articulate, at least briefly, its reasons when recommending imposition of a bargaining order. This course would be prudent in all cases, but particularly so in close ones, where the factfinder might reasonably have come to a different conclusion regarding the alleged unfair labor practices and where there is no history of union animus.
While the majority’s recitation in the present case conveys a picture of egregious employer misconduct, I believe that the facts are subject to varying colorations, not all of which are as unambiguously dark as the majority opinion would suggest. Given the nature of this case, it would have been preferable for the Board to have done more than simply adopt the findings and conclusions of the AU. A practice by which an administrative agency expressly justifies its decisions comports with a long tradition in our legal culture, that of providing reasons for countermajoritarian results. The Gissel bargaining order, like judicial review itself, is potentially anti-democratic: the order arises from an adversarial union-employer proceeding in which the employees have no voice, and imposes a union on a majority of employees who may oppose it. Gissel orders, however, are considered necessary, just as is judicial review, because we live in a community in which the democratic process is not and probably cannot be free from the distorting influences of disparate economic power. In such a situation, measures which facially appear to run counter to majority votes, where properly circumscribed, may serve to protect the democratic process itself.
But if an anti-democratic solution is to be adopted, proper circumscription is critical. In a society founded upon democratic principles, it is incumbent upon those institutions that exercise potentially countermajo-ritarian power to provide explanations for their actions. The requirement of reasoned *321decisionmaking encourages careful consideration by the institution itself, and is also essential to further the ends of consistency, predictability, and rationality. Hedstrom, 629 F.2d at 309.
A bargaining order constitutes at once a direct threat to, and an appropriate safeguard for, the democratic nature of union elections. Because it walks the line between undermining and guaranteeing true representation, I believe that a bargaining order requires exceedingly careful consideration. While the Board may have given this matter such consideration, we cannot determine whether in fact it did so since it merely adopted the AU’s findings. Therefore, while I concur because the Board did all that was required under the state of the law in this Circuit, I write to urge the Board and Congress to reconsider this policy.