Kelly v. Pearce

178 F. Supp. 3d 172, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44608, 2016 WL 1317929
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 31, 2016
Docket15-CV-5117 (ALC)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 178 F. Supp. 3d 172 (Kelly v. Pearce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelly v. Pearce, 178 F. Supp. 3d 172, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44608, 2016 WL 1317929 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

[174]*174 OPINION & ORDER

ANDREW L. CARTER, JR., District Judge

Before this court are plaintiffs motion for injunctive relief and defendants’ motion to dismiss this action. Plaintiff seeks an order vacating a decision from a Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board” or “the NLRB”) and enjoining the NLRB from conducting unit clarification proceedings for newly opened facilities that might be governed by plaintiffs collective bargaining agreements. For the reasons that follow, defendant’s motion to dismiss for Jack of subject matter jurisdiction is granted. Plaintiffs motion for injunctive relief is denied.

BACKGROUND

The following facts are taken from the allegations contained in the complaint and the parties’ declarations.1 They are construed in the light most favorable to plaintiff.

Plaintiff Julie Kelly is the General Manager of the New York-New Jersey Regional Joint Board, Workers United, A/W SEIU (“the Union” or “the Joint Board”). Compl. ¶4. Pursuant to Section 2(5) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), this Joint-Board represents employees who work for retail and manufacturing businesses. Id. Local 340 is'a subordinate body that represents retail store employees and Local 25 is a subordinate body that represents tailors and other employees performing alteration work in retail stores and alteration shops. Id. Defendants are the board members to the NLRB.2 The NLRB are granted authority to enforce the NLRA through a quasi-judicial forum where they review decisions made in the agency’s administrative hearings. Id. ¶ 5.

Local 340 and Local 25 are parties to collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”) with Brooks Brothers Group, Inc. (“Brooks Brothers” or “the Employer”), a corporation operating luxury retail stores. Id. ¶¶ 6-7. In the relevant period, the CBA between Local 340 and Brooks Brothers described the bargaining unit as follows:

The Employer recognizes the Union as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining agent of all: (i) selling personnel and expediters, housekeeping, shipping, receiving, floor cashier, call desk, on-floor stock, concierge, door greeter, off-floor stock, visual personnel, fitter-tailors [], cash office personnel and mailroom personnel, excluding all selling and support supervisory personnel, at its retail stores at Madison Avenue, Liberty Plaza, Broadway, Bleecker Street and Rockefeller Center, New York City, Northern Boulevard, Manhasset, L.I., West Post Road, Eastchester, N.Y., The Westchester, White Plains, N.Y., Roosevelt Field, L.I., Huntington, L.I., Southampton, L.I., West Nyack, N.Y., Stamford, Conn., and any other retail store(s) opened during the terms of this Agreement operated by the Employer under the name “Brooks Brothers” in the City of New York and in the Counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester only....

Id. ¶ 7. The CBA between Local 25 and Brooks Brothers contained similar clauses recognizing the bargaining unit and describing how to account for recently [175]*175opened stores (“recognition clause” and “after-acquired store clause” respectively).

RECOGNITION
The Company recognizes the Union as the exclusive bargaining representative for all regular full-time and regular part-time employees scheduled to work twenty-four (24) hours or more per week performing fitting, altering, finishing, pressing and central alterations shop clerical duties on its premises at the Company’s Long Island City central alterations shop and the Madison Avenue, Liberty Plaza, Broadway, Bleeker Street [sic], Southampton, Rockefeller Center, Scarsdale, Manhasset, Roosevelt Field, Huntington and West Nyack retail stores....
ACCRETION
Should any new retail store(s) open during the term of this Agreement in the City of New York and in the Counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and West-chester, and be operated by the Company under the name “Brooks Brother,” [sic] the Company shall agree to recognize the union as set forth in Article 1, Recognition.

Id. ¶¶ 9-10.

On February 28, 2011, Brooks Brothers opened a new retail store at 1180 Madison Avenue in New York City. Id. ¶ 11. Believing that this store was subject to the after-acquired store clause, plaintiff demanded that Brooks Brothers recognize the unions as the representatives for the employees of this new location. Id. ¶ 12. Brooks Brothers refused to comply with the Union’s demand, leading to a flurry of litigation.3 Id. Notably, Brooks Brothers filed a petition with the NLRB to clarify the bargaining unit (“unit clarification petition”). Id. ¶ 13. This petition sought to exclude all employees at the 1180 Madison Avenue store from the Local 340 and Local 25 bargaining units. Id. On October 12, 2012, the Board held a hearing on this petition. Id. ¶ 17. Brooks Brothers asserted that it did not have an obligation to recognize the Unions unless they could demonstrate that they had majority support among the employees of the store. Id. ¶ 18. Conversely, the Unions asserted that the store was an accretion to the larger bargaining unit and that it did not have to demonstrate majority support. Id.

While the petition was pending, the Union and Brooks Brothers engaged in negotiations for the successor CBA agreements for Local 340 and Local 25. Id. ¶ 18. During these discussions, the Union agreed to limit No-Strike clauses of the agreement in exchange for preserving the after-acquired store clauses. Id. ¶ 21.

On December 18, 2015, the Regional Director of the NLRB in Region 2 issued a decision in favor of Brooks Brothers holding that an accretion was inappropriate. [176]*176Id. 22. In reaching this determination, the Regional Director provided a thorough analysis of the following question: did the employees at the 1180 Madison Avenue store share an overwhelming community of interest with employees of the stores represented by Local 340 and Local 25. Murray Decl., Ex. A, at 28-38.

On the topic of majority support, the Regional Director provided little commentary. Shé noted that in the past Brooks Brothers had recognized the unions as representatives of employees in new stores opened in the New York City area without a showing of majority interest in the Union among the employees. Id. at 3. She noted that, nonetheless, the Union had typically obtained and demonstrated a majority 'showing of interest at the new stores. Id.' Finally, the Regional Director found that tlie Union did not at any point present Brooks Brothers with a showing of majority support among employees at the 1180 Madison Avenue store. Id. at 5.

The Regional Director’s decision also addressed two alternate challenges posed by the Union. The Union claimed that (1) the unit clarification would compel a concession by the Union on the scope of the bargaihing unit and (2) Brooks Brothers waived their right to use Board processes on issues of employee placement when they agreed to the CBAs’ terms, namely the after-acquired store and general arbitration clauses. Id, at 37-38. The Regional Director distinguished the cases cited by the Union on the second point, and noted, inter alia,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 F. Supp. 3d 172, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44608, 2016 WL 1317929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-pearce-nysd-2016.