Court Opinion

ID: 9471267
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:28:17.75056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:20.055894
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority overhauls the National Labor Relations Board’s finding that respondent Henry Vogt Company (the Company) violated Sections 8(a)(5), (3) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act by unilaterally revoking the laboratory employees’ lunchroom privileges after those employees voted to join the union. Because I believe that in so doing the majority misconstrues the standard of review, misapplies the substantive legal standard and misperceives the factual circumstances of this case, I respectfully dissent.
Although they are not impervious to the standard of review that this Court must apply when considering findings of the NLRB, the majority seems to ignore that standard in its decision. This Court must affirm the Board’s findings if they are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. 29 U.S.C. § 160(e); Universal *811Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 493, 71 S.Ct. 456, 467, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951). Accord NLRB v. Digital Paging System of Toledo, 659 F.2d 725, 726 (6th Cir.1981). The Supreme Court has declared that the conclusions of the Board are to be upheld even if this Court would have rendered a different decision had the matter been before it de novo. Universal Camera, 340 U.S. at 493, 71 S.Ct. at 467. The question before this Court on appeal, therefore, is not whether we can architect a structure of facts that will stand opposed to the Board’s findings. With the slightest bit of creativity, this Court could construct such a structure in every ease. But the appellate process in this area is not an exercise in imagination. Rather we sit to analyze and review with great deference the findings of the NLRB. Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 433-34, 91 S.Ct. 849, 854-55, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). The Board’s findings that the Company “refused to bargain” with the union in violation of §§ 8(a)(5) and (1) and that the Company discriminated against union activity in violation of § 8(a)(3) of the NLRA are both supported by substantial evidence.
I.
Sections 8(a)(5) and 8(a)(1)
As even the majority recognizes, it is well settled law that an employer may not refuse to bargain with the employees’ designated representative concerning mandatory subjects of collective bargaining. NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 743, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 1111, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 (1962); NLRB v. Allied Products Corp., 548 F.2d 644, 652 (6th Cir.1977). The Supreme Court has held that in-plant food services made available by an employer are mandatory bargaining subjects because the “terms and conditions under which food is available on the job are plainly germane to the ‘working environment.’ ” Ford Motor Co. v. NLRB, 441 U.S. 488, 498, 99 S.Ct. 1842, 1849, 60 L.Ed.2d 420 (1979). The laboratory employees’ cafeteria privilege, therefore, was a mandatory bargaining subject over which the Company had a duty to bargain.
The breach of that duty to bargain constitutes a violation of § 8(a)(5) unless the union has waived its right to bargain. The majority cites International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union v. NLRB, 463 F.2d 907 (D.C.Cir.1972) for the proposition that waiver will be found if the “Union received sufficient notice of the proposed change, and yet failed to protest or demand bargaining on the issue” (majority opinion, slip opinion p. 806). In that case, however, the court explicitly rejected the Company’s effort to “escape its obligations” to bargain collectively with its employees. The court found “clearly fallacious” the Company’s argument that “special circumstances” excused its unilateral action to relocate. Ladies’ Garment Workers, 463 F.2d at 918. “[B]y piecing together various facts picked up,” the Union in that case “reasonably suspected ” that the Company would unilaterally relocate. The union did have some warning of the Company’s unilateral action. But the Court held that “mere suspicion or conjecture cannot take the place of notice.” Ladies’ Garment Workers, 463 F.2d 907 (D.C.Cir.1972). Citing NLRB v. Royal Plating & Polishing Co., 350. F.2d 191 (3rd Cir. 1965); NLRB v. Rapid Bindery, Inc., 293 F.2d 170 (2nd Cir.1961). Hence although the majority cites Ladies’ Garment Workers for the “waiver” standard, they do not take cognizance of the thrust of that decision.
Nor does the majority seemingly appreciate the waiver standard applied in the instant case by the NLRB. In its Order, the NLRB found “no ‘clear and unequivocal’ evidence pointing to a ‘conscious relinquishment’ by the union of any right to bargain about the cafeteria privileges, and that the union’s failure to raise the issue was not tantamount to a waiver.” 251 NLRB No. 40 August 21, 1980. The majority, which claims to “agree with” this standard, in reality misquotes the Board. “The Board,” the majority writes, “requires proof of clear and unequivocal notice such that the union’s subsequent failure to demand bargaining constitutes a ‘conscious relinquishment’ of the right to bargain.” Plainly the Board did not require “clear and unequivocal no*812tice”; rather it required clear and unequivocal evidence of a conscious relinquishment of the right to bargain. The Board’s standard focuses upon the waiver itself, while the majority’s standard focuses upon the notice. What is crucial to the outcome of this case is whether the union waived its right to bargain, not whether the union had some notice of the Company’s action. For a union with notice clearly has not waived its rights until it consciously relinquishes them. The lack of notice precludes waiver. Yet the presence of notice does not automatically constitute waiver. Notice is a necessary but not a sufficient element of waiver. The majority’s reading of the record reveals that the union’s negotiating committee was “well aware” of the Company’s intentions. That awareness, the majority concludes, amounts to a waiver.
I cannot agree either with the majority’s waiver standard or with their application of that standard to the facts of this case. The Board’s finding that the union did not have sufficient notice of the Company’s revocation of cafeteria benefits is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. But even if the union had some notice of the Company’s intended revocation, the union did not waive its right to bargain.
A. Notice
Substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the union did not receive sufficient notice. Notice of a contemplated unilateral change in the terms or conditions of employment must be formally given. NLRB v. Sweet Lumber Co., 515 F.2d 785, 795 (10th Cir.1975). In NLRB v. Rapid Bindery Inc., 293 F.2d at 176, the Second Circuit held that “conjecture or rumor is not an adequate substitute for an employer’s formal notice to a union of a vital change in working conditions.” Furthermore in NLRB v. Nello Pistoresi & Son, Inc., 500 F.2d 399, 400 (9th Cir.1974), the Court held that “An employer violates Sections 8(a)(5) and 8(a)(1) of the Act when he unilaterally alters ‘wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment,’ ... without first consulting and negotiating with the bargaining representative of his employees.” (emphasis added). Citing NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 742-3, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 1111, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 (1962); American Smelting & Refining Co. v. NLRB, 406 F.2d 552 (9th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 395 U.S. 935, 89 S.Ct. 1998, 23 L.Ed.2d 450 (1969). Consistent with these opinions, the Ninth Circuit in Clear Pine Mouldings, Inc. v. NLRB, 632 F.2d 721 (9th Cir.1980), held that an employer’s unilateral change in employees’ health care benefits constituted a unilateral refusal to bargain. Despite the fact that “the parties talked about” this issue, the Court found that such conversation was not “notice” within the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act. The case law in this area clearly indicates that conjecture, suspicion, rumor and even conversation are insufficient notice. The NLRA requires formal notice and collective consultation over a change in a mandatory bargaining subject.
The Board certainly was justified in finding that the Company neither sent notice to the union of the change in cafeteria benefits nor consulted with the union about that, change. The majority points to the testimony of David Wagner, a laboratory employee, to the effect that, “basically the whole [Negotiating] Committee” was aware that the cafeteria privileges would be revoked. That portion of the record, however, also reveals that David Wagner approached the Negotiating Committee on that day to inquire about the status of his privilege. He asked “if we would still be able to eat in the cafeteria because they told us that we wouldn’t.” (Record p. 114). The Committee, Wagner testified, “never said anything definite about what was going to go on” (Rec. p. 115). That Committee in fact was so indefinite about the cafeteria privileges that it was unable to “do anything ... until they take it away from us” (Rec. p. 115). This incident, on which the majority rests a great deal of its argument, is exactly the kind of occurrence that the Courts contemplated when they held that rumor, conjecture and suspicion are not sufficient notice. David Wagner clearly relied on Vogel’s pre-election speeches or *813heard a rumor that his cafeteria privileges would be revoked if he voted to join the union. He spread that rumor to the Negotiating Committee. The Committee’s response to him was no less clearly an example of conjecture and suspicion. Such filtering down of industrial gossip is hardly the type of formal notice and consultation that the framers of the NLRA envisioned.
The majority opinion itself provides further evidence of the lack of sufficient notice. According to the majority, Roger McCombs, another laboratory employee, testified that he talked about the possibility of revocation several times with the local union president, who is also a member of the Negotiating Committee. “The president responded that he did not know, but that he would look into it and talk to Hatfield [the union’s chief negotiator] about it.” (App. 126, Maj.Opinion, p. 807). The local union president thus did not know whether the Company intended to revoke the cafeteria privileges. Moreover, Hatfield, the union’s chief negotiator and the man to whom the president turned for information, “testified that he could not recall being told by laboratory employees prior to the contract’s ratification that the Company intended to revoke their cafeteria privilege” (App. 75, Majority opinion, p. 807). Hatfield in fact testified that he “heard nothing about it until after the contract was concluded in October” (App. 44). The chief union negotiator only learned of the revocation of cafeteria benefits when the employees came to him after the privilege had been terminated. Hence, even the facts which the majority relies upon in its de novo reconstruction of the case clearly indicate that the union representatives did not receive sufficient notice of the planned termination.
Moreover, those members of the Committee who did receive some notice of the termination received it tardily. Notice must be given sufficiently in advance of the actual implementation of a change to allow a reasonable opportunity for bargaining over the Company’s decision. NLRB v. Crystal Springs Shirt Corp., 637 F.2d 399, 402 (5th Cir.1981); Ladies’ Garment Workers, 463 F.2d 907 (D.C.Cir.1972). In Ladies’ Garment Workers, the Second Circuit stated that “no genuine bargaining ... can be conducted where the decision has already been made and implemented.” Citing Town & Country Mfg. Co. v. NLRB, 316 F.2d 846 (5th Cir.1963). “Notice of a fait accompli,” the court declared, “is simply not the sort of timely notice upon which the waiver defense is predicated.” Id.
The only notice which the union Negotiating Committee actually received was of a fait accompli. The majority refers at length to a meeting between the Negotiating Committee and several laboratory employees during which the employees informed the Committee that the lunchroom privilege had been terminated. The Committee members did not give a “direct response,” but “just shrugged their shoulders.” (App. 181, majority opinion p. 808). At that meeting, the Committee members plainly received notice that the Company had decided to revoke the lunchroom privileges. But the majority ignores the fact that this meeting was held on October 18, 1978, just one business day before the contract was ratified. When the Committee finally received definite notice of the Company’s intentions, the “decision had already been made.” As Ladies’ Garment Workers makes clear, the notice given to the union Negotiating Committee was not “the sort of timely notice” required by the NLRA.
Under the majority’s reconstruction of the facts of this case, therefore, it is evident that the Union did not receive adequate notice of the Company’s intention to eliminate the laboratory employee’s cafeteria benefits. The evidence of the lack of notice, however, need not even be that formidable. The evidence need only support the explicit findings of the NLRB. There is no question in my mind that substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the Union did not receive adequate notice of the change.
B. Waiver
But even if the union’s Negotiating Committee had received notice of the change in *814cafetería benefits, substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the Committee did not “waive” its right to bargain over the issue. The majority opines that waiver requires a “conscious relinquishment” of the right to bargain. (Majority opinion, p. 807). The prevailing case law in this area mandates that “only clear and unmistakable language will warrant a conclusion that waiver was intended.” General Electric Co. v. NLRB, 414 F.2d 918, 923 (4th Cir.1969); See also NLRB v. Marine Optical, Inc., 671 F.2d 11, 16 (1st Cir.1981); American Oil Co. v. NLRB, 602 F.2d 184, 188 (8th Cir.1979). These cases clearly establish that a lucid communication of the desire to waive the right to bargain from the union to the Company is required before any waiver will be effective. Waiver must not be inferred from silence. Timken Roller Bearing Co. v. NLRB, 325 F.2d 746, 751 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 971, 84 S.Ct. 1135, 12 L.Ed.2d 85 (1964).
In its reconstruction, the majority improperly infers from the union’s failure to make a proposal concerning the lunchroom privileges a waiver of the right to bargain. The majority cites the testimony of Tharp, who suggested that the Negotiating Committee did not demand the preservation of the cafeterial benefits. But the Committee’s silence is not clear and unmistakable language of a waiver. Furthermore, the union’s Chief Negotiator, Hatfield, testified that “it was always the intention of the union to negotiate” for the laboratory employees (App. 47). In “all [his] negotiations,” Hatfield “intended to preserve a lunchroom privilege” for those employees. (App. 57).
When asked why the Negotiating Committee remained silent on this issue, Hatfield responded:
There was no need as far as I was concerned to try to attempt to change that. They had [the lunchroom privileges] until the day that the contract between the
Company and the union was concluded. (App. 68). Hatfield suggests that the Committee felt no need to fight the status quo. Under these circumstances, the Committee’s silence cannot constitute a conscious relinquishment of its right to bargain. I am fully satisfied that substantial evidence on the record as a whole supports the Board’s finding that the union did not waive its right to bargain over the termination of laboratory employees cafeterial benefits. I am convinced, therefore, that the Company acted unilaterally in violation of Sections 8(a)(5) and (1) of the NLRA.
II.
Section 8(a)(3)
I am no less convinced that substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the Company’s termination of the laboratory employees’ cafeteria benefits after they voted to join the union discouraged union membership and coerced employees in violation of § 8(a)(3) of the NLRA. The majority overhauls this finding, creating a theory in support of the notion that the company’s termination of cafeterial benefits was not inherently discriminatory. Because the union waived the right to bargain over the issue, the majority opines, the Company’s action cannot be characterized as discriminatory.
I, of course, do not agree that the union waived its right to bargain. But even if the union had waived its right to bargain, the Company’s action still violates § 8(a)(3). That provision of the NLRA is designed to prevent employers from discouraging employees from joining a union. The provision thwarts employer efforts to coerce employees against union participation or to retaliate against employees who have joined a union. NLRB v. Great Dane Trailers, 388 U.S. 26, 87 S.Ct. 1792, 18 L.Ed.2d 1027 (1967). Such coercion or retaliation can occur regardless of whether the Union Negotiating Committee waives its right to bargain over the relevant issue. The majority therefore errs when it concludes that merely because the Union Negotiating Committee waived its right to bargain over the termination of cafeterial benefits, the threatened and actual termination of those benefits could not be inherently destructive of employee organization. This Court *815should have considered the effect upon the employees’ exercise of their § 7 rights of the threatened and actual termination of lunchroom benefits.
The NLRB considered that effect and determined that the Company’s relocation was inherently destructive of employees’ organizational activity. I find substantial evidence on the record as a whole for the Board’s findings. In Great Dane, the Supreme Court held that an affirmative demonstration of anti-union animus is only a necessary element in a § 8(a)(3) violation where the harm to employees’ rights is comparatively slight and a substantial and legitimate business interest is served. 388 U.S. at 34, 87 S.Ct. at 1798. As the Board properly found in the instant case, the harm to employee rights is not “comparatively slight.” In his pre-election speeches, the Company’s Vice-President, Vogel, stressed that the laboratory employees’ lunchroom privilege was a “decided plus.” Vogel reminded these employees immediately before the union election that, as a consequence of their non-union status, they were able to purchase lunch for “far less” than were those who belonged to the union. More precisely, before the laboratory employees voted to join the union, they were able to buy lunch for $1.00 per week. After they voted to join the union, those employees had to pay $12.50 per week. Over the course of one year, the laboratory employees were forced to pay approximately $500.00 more as a consequence of voting to join the union. That amount is a significant percentage of a laboratory employee’s salary. In strictly economic terms, $500.00 is not a “comparatively slight” harm to those employees who chose to join the union.
But more importantly, the “harm” to the employees’ interests in this case goes to the core of their § 7 rights. These rights guarantee to employees the ability to participate in, develop and solidify organizational activity. The right to elect to join a union therefore is a fundamental right granted to employees by the NLRA. Any infringement on that fundamental right cannot be characterized as “slight.” The substantial economic price of exercising fundamental § 7 rights thus does not constitute a “comparatively slight” harm to employee interests.
Furthermore the Company has not demonstrated that this “harm” to employee rights is justified by a “substantial and legitimate business interest.” The majority claims that space limitation in the lunchroom is such an interest. But even the most cursory reading of the record reveals that this “interest” is specious. Space in the lunchroom only becomes a problem if the employees who did not enjoy the privilege of eating there before the election were granted that privilege after the election. No one is suggesting that this happened. What the Board requires is only that the status quo be maintained. The Company admitted that there was no substantial change in the number of laboratory employees between the election and the discontinuation of the cafeteria privilege. Therefore, ho real space problem exists. Rather the fact of “spatial limitations” is only a post hoc justification offered by the Company. That justification, as the Board properly found, is without merit. Because the significant harm to employee interests is not justified by a substantial and legitimate business interest, the appellant need not show anti-union animus to demonstrate a § 8(a)(3) violation.
Substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the union has met the limited burden of showing that the Company’s action was inherently destructive of employee interests. In NLRB v. McCann Steel Co., 448 F.2d 277, 279 (6th Cir.1971), this Circuit held that employer conduct that is inherently destructive of employees’ § 7 rights and that is carried out in retaliation for the exercise of those rights violates § 8(a)(3). Accord NLRB v. Electric Steam Radiator Corp., 321 F.2d 733 (6th Cir.1963). In McCann Steel, the employer reduced its yearly Christmas bonus after employees voted to join the union, while in Electric Steam Radiator, the employer revoked a similar fringe benefit following a successful union representation election. In both *816cases, this Court held that the employer’s retaliatory action was inherently destructive of employee interests in violation of § 8(a)(3).
In the instant case as well, the employer’s retaliatory action was inherently destructive of employee organizational activity. Vice-President Vogel spoke twice to the laboratory employees. Interestingly each speech occurred just before a union election. In the first speech, Vogel reminded the laboratory employees that they had the privilege. Many of those employees did not know of the privilege. One employee, Roger McCombs, testified that, “when Mr. Vogel said that we had the right, we all started going up there as a group” (App. 123). Vogel encouraged the employees to use the lunchroom, then told them that if they decided to join the union they could no longer use the lunchroom. The NLRB could derive from these events substantial evidence that the Company’s Vice-President used the lunchroom benefit as a lever to discourage union membership.
When the laboratory employees finally voted to join the union, the Company exercised that lever in retaliation. David Harbin, the Company’s Personnel Manager, testified that the only reason that the laboratory employees’ lunchroom privilege was discontinued was because they voted to join the union (App. 165). The Company in effect admits that the revocation of a significant benefit was solely in retaliation for union activity. I am convinced by this clear evidence that the Company’s action was inherently destructive of employee interests.
But I need not be so convinced. All that this Court must do is review the evidence which convinced the Board. Plainly there is substantial evidence on the record as a whole from which the NLRB could have found that the Company violated § 8(a)(3). Such substantial evidence also supports the Board’s finding that the Company violated Sections 8(a)(5) and 8(a)(1) of the NLRA.
For the reasons expressed above, I cannot concur in the majority’s de novo reconstruction of this case and respectfully dissent.