Dino & Sons Realty Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board

37 F. App'x 566
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJune 18, 2002
DocketDocket Nos. 01-4158, 01-4188
StatusPublished

This text of 37 F. App'x 566 (Dino & Sons Realty Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dino & Sons Realty Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 37 F. App'x 566 (2d Cir. 2002).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the petition for review is DENIED, the cross-petition for enforcement is GRANTED, and the petition for summary enforcement is GRANTED.

This case arises out of a 1996 strike by Local 32B-32J, Service Employees International Union (the “Union”) against the Dino & Sons Realty Corporation (the “Company”) at a building it owns and operates at 220 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. The action was part of a city-wide strike by the Union against all members of the Real Estate Advisory Board of New [568]*568York City (“REAB”), with which the Union had a collective bargaining agreement covering cleaners, elevator operators and starters, and guards.

The Company petitions for review and the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) cross-petitions for enforcement of a Decision and Order issued on February 25, 2000, adopting the rulings, findings, conclusions and recommended order of Administrative Law Judge Jesse Kleiman. See Dino & Sons Realty Corporation & Najmal Upadye, Case 2-CA-29306, 2000 WL 231786 (N.L.R.B. Feb.25, 2000). The Board found that the Company violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1)) by telling employees that they had lost their jobs and would not be rehired because they had engaged in a strike against the company, and that it violated Section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act (29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3)) by discharging and refusing to reinstate the striking employees. The Board’s order requires the Company to, inter alia, offer union members full reinstatement to their former positions or substantially equivalent ones and to make them whole for any loss of wages and benefits they may have suffered as a result of the Company’s violations of the Act.

The NLRB also petitions for summary enforcement of a Supplemental Decision and Order, issued August 9, 2001, which requires the Company to pay specific backpay awards to the following employees: Najmal Upadye ($19,378); Gary Francis ($ 9,766); Will Hardman ($31,386); Lucy Restrepo ($27,062); Luis Acevedo ($13,328); Cecilia Castaño ($30,464); Maria Serrano ($19,816); and Richard Finnerty ($10,586). See generally Dino & Sons Realty Corporation & Najmal Upadye, Case 2-CA-29306, 2001 WL 1598739 (N.L.R.B. Div. of Judges, June 22, 2001).

I.

The Board’s decision was based on the following testimony, which was adduced in proceedings before ALJ Kleiman:

As a member of REAB, the Company was party to the collective-bargaining agreement with the Union, which covered eight of the fifteen employees at the building: Upadye, Francis, Hardman, Restrepo, Acevedo, Castaño, Serrano, and Finnerty. Before expiration of that agreement on December 31, 1995, the Company lawfully withdrew from REAB and terminated REAB’s authorization to bargain on the Company’s behalf. Union member Hardman testified that, at about that same time, Building Superintendent Rudy Vera told him that, after 1995, there would be no more union in the building.

After the REAB agreement expired, the Union called a city-wide strike that commenced on January 4, 1996. On that date, the eight members of the Union employed at 220 Fifth Avenue went on strike and commenced daily picketing in front of the building. Union Business Agent John Kalnberg named Francis as the strike captain of the employees. As strike captain, Francis was responsible for taking attendance at the picket line and providing the striking employees with strike-related information.

On February 4, 1996, REAB and the Union reached agreement on a successor collective-bargaining agreement and the Union directed its membership to return to work. Francis testified that, on the following day, he reported for work. As he approached the Fifth Avenue building, Building Superintendent Vera came outside to meet him. Francis told Vera, “I’m here to go back to work.” Vera replied, “[Building Manager] Homero [Ferronato] said that none of you can go back to work.” [569]*569Vera then approached employees Serrano and Castaño, who were also outside. Speaking in Spanish, Vera told them, “[T]he strike has ended, [but] it didn’t end for [you] because [you aren’t] allowed to go in to work.”

After this conversation, Francis waited for the rest of the strikers. Eventually, all but Finnerty arrived. Francis told them that Ferronato had told Vera not to allow the strikers back in the budding.

Later that day, seven of the Union members went to the Union’s office and met with Business Agent Kalnberg. Kalnberg testified that the union members told him that Vera, on Ferronato’s instructions, would not allow them to return to work. Kalnberg telephoned Ferronato and asked him why the strikers were not being allowed to return to work. Ferronato responded that the Company did not want these employees back to work “because their wages were too high and their benefits were too high.” Kalnberg told the Union members to continue with the strike and picketing; they complied.

Upadye testified that, later that week, he saw Company Vice-President Rocco Tomassetti while picketing the building and asked him for his job back. Tomassetti replied, according to Upadye, that “no strikers are allowed in the building, no strikers are going to be hired back.” The following week, Upadye again asked Tomassetti why he was not being rehired. Tomassetti replied that the Company was not rehiring any strikers. Upadye told his fellow strikers about his conversations with Tomassetti.

Ferronato testified that, on March 13, he and Joseph S. Rosenthal, the Company’s counsel, met with Kalnberg and Ira Strum, the Union’s counsel, to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement. The Union asked the Company to sign the same agreement as the one signed by REAB. The Company offered a counter proposal, which was rejected by the Union. At this meeting, the Company advised the Union that the striking employees had been permanently replaced but that should they wish to return to work, the Company would employ them if there were positions available. No further meetings were held between the Company and the Union.

Hardman testified that, on July 11, he telephoned Company President Dino Tomassetti and asked to be rehired. Tomassetti replied, according to Hardman, that Hardman lost his job because he went out on strike and he would not be getting his job back.

None of the strikers has been rehired.

II.

We review the Board’s legal conclusions to ensure that they have a reasonable basis in law, affording the Board “a degree of legal leeway.” NLRB v. Town & Country Elec., Inc., 516 U.S. 85, 89-90, 116 S.Ct. 450, 133 L.Ed.2d 371 (1995). Factual findings of the Board will not be disturbed if they are supported by substantial evidence in light of the record as a whole. See 29 U.S.C. § 160(e)-(f); Electrical Contractors, Inc. v. NLRB, 245 F.3d 109, 116 (2d Cir. 2001). “Substantial evidence means more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Id.

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