Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated v. National Labor Relations Board, National Labor Relations Board v. Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated

338 F.3d 267, 172 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3214, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 15433
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 2003
Docket02-1740, 02-1897
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 338 F.3d 267 (Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated v. National Labor Relations Board, National Labor Relations Board v. Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated v. National Labor Relations Board, National Labor Relations Board v. Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated, 338 F.3d 267, 172 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3214, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 15433 (4th Cir. 2003).

Opinions

Petition for review denied and cross-application for enforcement granted by published opinion. Judge KING wrote the opinion, in which Judge WIDENER joined. Judge SHEDD wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

KING, Circuit Judge:

Anheuser-Busch Incorporated (“Busch”) petitions this Court for review of a Decision and' Order entered against it by the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”). Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 337 N.L.R.B. No. 2 (Dec. 19, 2001) (the “Or[270]*270der”).1 By its Order, the Board affirmed an earlier decision of an Administrative Law Judge (the “ALJ”), who concluded that Busch, on four occasions, had violated § 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).2 The Board has cross-applied for enforcement of its Order. As explained below, we deny the petition for review and grant the Board’s cross-application for enforcement.

I.

Busch operates twelve breweries in the United States, including a brewery in Baldwinsville, New York (the “Baldwins-ville brewery”). At the Baldwinsville brewery, certain of Busch’s employees are represented by the Brewery Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local No. 1149 (collectively, the “Teamsters”). In 1998 and 1999, the Teamsters and brewery management engaged in contract negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, leading to several controversial incidents at the Bald-winsville brewery. As a result of these incidents, the Teamsters filed a series of charges with the Board, asserting that Busch had committed a host of unfair labor practices. Ultimately, on December 2, 1999, the charges were consolidated into a complaint against Busch (the “Complaint”), issued by the Board’s Regional Director for the New York area.3

In order to assess the Teamsters’s allegations, the ALJ conducted a hearing in Syracuse, New York, from March 8 through 10, 2000. On July 7, 2000, the ALJ issued his decision, making findings of fact and conclusions of law, and preparing a recommended order (the “ALJ Decision”).4 The ALJ concluded that Busch had committed four unfair labor practices involving three employees who worked at the Baldwinsville brewery, specifically, Patrick Lamirande, Joseph Rim-ualdo, and Brian Meany. After the ALJ Decision was filed with the Board, Busch filed exceptions to it. On review, the Board affirmed the ALJ’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, and it adopted his recommended order.5 Order at 1. As noted above, Busch has petitioned for our review of the Order, and the Board has cross-applied for its enforcement. We [271]*271possess jurisdiction pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 160(f).

II.

A. Incidents Involving Patrick Lamirande

On December 15, 1998, Teamsters member Patrick Lamirande, a production operator at the Baldwinsville brewery, allegedly obstructed an independent contractor doing work for Busch (the “Contractor Incident”). At approximately 11:15 the following morning, Mark Burlin-game and Art Lux, members of the brewery’s management, approached Lamirande and began questioning him about the incident. Lamirande promptly requested the presence and assistance of Dan Finn, a shop steward in Lamirande’s department, who was already aware of the facts underlying the Contractor Incident.6 Assuming Finn was at lunch, Burlingame declined this request, calling instead for Fred Vo-gel, another shop steward in Lamirande’s department. Vogel arrived at the site of Lamirande’s questioning within fifteen minutes, and after speaking privately with Lamirande, Vogel renewed the request for Finn’s presence. Burlingame denied this request, stating that Lamirande should respond to the allegations immediately. La-mirande declined to discuss the matter without Finn, and Burlingame sent him home for the day.

The next morning, December 17, 1998, Lamirande was directed to Burlingame’s office for a meeting with management. Upon reporting to the office, he met with Vogel, Burlingame, Lux, Howard Ormsby (a Teamsters business agent), and Ken Silva (a brewery assistant manager). Ormsby, speaking on Lamirande’s behalf, requested that Finn be allowed to attend the meeting and represent Lamirande, but Silva insisted that Finn’s presence was unnecessary. Lamirande was questioned without Finn, and Burlingame thereafter informed Lamirande that he would be disciplined for the Contractor Incident. As a result of these events, the Teamsters filed a charge with the Board, alleging that Busch had committed two unfair labor practices in refusing Lamirande’s requests (on December 16 and 17) to be represented by Finn.

In assessing the Teamsters’s allegations, the ALJ ruled that, under the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251, 95 S.Ct. 959, 43 L.Ed.2d 171 (1975), and pursuant to the Board’s related precedents, “an employee has the right to specify the representative he or she wants, and the employer is obligated to supply that representative absent some extenuating circumstances.” ALJ Decision at 6. Pursuant to this principle, the ALJ concluded that, although Finn may have been eating lunch when Burlingame initially wanted to question Lamirande, Finn was nevertheless “available” as a representative. Id. Finn had previously circumscribed his lunch breaks in order to represent employees. In any event, Finn would have completed his lunch break within fifteen minutes of Lamirande’s initial request. By its Order, the Board agreed with the ALJ’s ruling that Busch had committed two unfair labor practices in denying La-mirande’s requests to be represented by a particular shop steward. Order at 1.

B. Incidents Involving Joseph Rimualdo

In 1987, Joseph Rimualdo, a member of the Teamsters, began working in the packaging, bottling, and shipping department [272]*272of the Baldwinsville brewery. In 1998, he became a shop steward, and he soon learned of certain safety issues in two other departments of the brewery. In January of 1999, he filed six grievances related to those safety issues. Upon being informed of these grievances, Fred Singler, the manager of Rimualdo’s department, met with Rimualdo and the managers of the two departments involved in the safety grievances, Lux and Nick Alivero. In this meeting, Singler asserted that Rimualdo had failed to follow the proper procedures for addressing the safety issues. Rimual-do admitted that this assertion was accurate, and the meeting adjourned. Four days later, upon seeing Rimualdo drinking a Labatt’s Blue beer in a tavern near the brewery, Lux said, “This is two strikes. You got one for filing safety grievances and you got one for drinking Labatt’s Blue.” ALJ Decision at 11. As a result of this incident, the Teamsters charged Busch with an unfair labor practice, asserting that Lux had threatened Rimualdo for filing safety grievances, an activity protected by the Act.

Before a hearing was conducted on this charge, Rimualdo was involved in another incident at the brewery. On August 25, 1999, Rimualdo, with a group of fellow employees, was hand stamping dates on packages of beer.

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338 F.3d 267, 172 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3214, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 15433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anheuser-busch-incorporated-v-national-labor-relations-board-national-ca4-2003.