KLB Industries, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board

700 F.3d 551, 403 U.S. App. D.C. 122, 2012 WL 6013449, 194 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedDecember 4, 2012
Docket11-1280, 11-1322
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 700 F.3d 551 (KLB Industries, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
KLB Industries, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 700 F.3d 551, 403 U.S. App. D.C. 122, 2012 WL 6013449, 194 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848 (D.C. Cir. 2012).

Opinions

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge HENDERSON.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

Once again, we confront the issue of how much information a company must provide to a union during collective bargaining. Here, the company sought substantial wage concessions on the basis of competitive pressures it claimed to be facing. Seeking to verify this contention, the union requested information about the company’s prices and customers. The company denied the union’s request and then locked out the bargaining unit employees. Relying on a line of decisions endorsing a broad discovery standard, the National Labor Relations Board found that the union’s information request was relevant to its duties as the employees’ bargaining representative and that the company’s information withholding and lockout were both unlawful. For the reasons given below, we deny the company’s petition for review and grant the Board’s cross-application for enforcement.

I.

Petitioner KLB Industries manufactures aluminum extrusions at its Bellefontaine, Ohio, facility. Since taking over the plant [553]*553in 1997, KLB has signed three collective bargaining agreements with its sixteen-member union. On September 20, 2007, ten days before the third agreement expired, the parties began negotiating a fourth agreement.

From the outset, KLB and the union took dramatically different positions. The company’s position “centered around competitiveness.” KLB Industries, 357 NLRB No. 8, 4 n. 9 (July 26, 2011). Specifically, it claimed that it was facing increased competition from Asian manufacturers, rising production costs, and decreased productivity. KLB also expressed concern about retaining customers. Based on these claims, the company initially demanded substantial wage concessions: a twenty percent reduction in the first year and no changes the following two years. By contrast, the union sought wage increases. Throughout late September, the negotiations focused on wages and health insurance, and the parties agreed to a day-to-day extension of the expiring collective bargaining agreement.

On October 3, KLB notified the union that it would terminate the collective bargaining agreement on October 7. That same day the company made its last and final offer, which included an eight percent wage reduction the first year and two percent reductions in the second and third years. The union countered with moderate wage increases. Even though the federal mediator remarked that an impasse had been reached, the parties continued negotiating.

The next day, on October 4, the union sent KLB a letter requesting the following information: (1) a list of all current customers; (2) a copy of all price quotes that the company had provided over the past five years and an indication of which of those quotes had been awarded; (3) a list of all projects outsourced over the past five years that had been handled by bargaining unit employees; (4) a list of all customers who had ceased purchasing from KLB during the last five years; (5) a complete list of prices for KLB’s products; (6) market studies concerning the company’s products; and (7) a complete calculation of KLB’s projected savings from its concessionary wage proposal, including an estimate of overtime. The union explained that it needed this information because, “[djuring the course of the[ ] negotiations, [KLB] has continually asserted that they must improve the competitive position of the Bellefontaine, Ohio facility.” According to the letter, the union needed the requested information generally to verify KLB’s competitiveness claim and the price information specifically to “compare the prices of competitors.” Similarly, the union requested the list of lost customers to “test the Company’s assertion that they are not competitive.” Throughout early and mid-October, the parties continued negotiating and the wage issue remained a major sticking point.

On October 18, KLB responded to the information request, refusing to hand over information because its “desire to remain competitive in both global and domestic markets is no different from the desire of any business conducting operations similar to [this company].” KLB nonetheless disclosed estimated annual wage savings— one of the types of information the union had sought — without providing its underlying calculations or a prediction of overtime hours. The next day, KLB informed the union that a lockout would begin on October 22. KLB also informed the employees that their health insurance benefits would expire and that they would need to apply for COBRA benefits to continue receiving health insurance. Shortly thereafter, on October 21, the union responded to KLB’s [554]*554information disclosure, stating that it was insufficient to address the company’s proposed wage cuts.

As announced, KLB locked out unit employees on October 22 and subsequently hired replacement workers. Two incidents relevant to this case occurred during the lockout. First, after KLB terminated the bargaining unit’s health insurance, it discovered that the cancellation of the entire plan meant that unit employees were ineligible for COBRA benefits. Second, several months into the lockout, the company called the police to report that union employees had trespassed on company property when they placed picket signs on a public right of way.

The union filed unfair labor charges against KLB and at a hearing before an administrative law judge, the company continued to press its competitive disadvantage argument. In his opening statement, the company’s attorney explained that “KLB was faced, in the 2007 negotiations, with business conditions it had not faced in previous years. KLB faced increased competition from Asia.” The attorney also stated that the company “had suffered a customer setback that ended up costing it approximately a million dollars.” To support these claims, KLB introduced into evidence a “Top 20 Customer Sales” chart detailing the past three years of sales. The ALJ found that the reasons offered by KLB at the hearing mirrored those offered at the negotiating table.

The ALJ concluded that because KLB had invoked competitive pressures as its key rationale in seeking wage concessions, the union was entitled to the requested information to verify those assertions. Rejecting the company’s alternative arguments that its wage information disclosure was sufficient and that the union had requested information in bad faith, the ALJ concluded that the company’s information withholding violated sections 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act. 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) & (5). The ALJ also found that the lockout and cancellation of health insurance violated sections 8(a)(1), (3), and (5). The ALJ, however, dismissed the union’s allegation that the company had engaged in so-called surface bargaining — that it had bargained in bad faith. Finally, the ALJ found that the company had committed an unfair labor practice by calling the police in retaliation for the union’s legal picketing. The Board, with one member dissenting, adopted the ALJ’s factual findings, legal reasoning, and proposed order. The dissenting member disagreed with the Board’s disclosure ruling and its conclusion that the lockout was unlawful, but agreed that KLB’s cancellation of employees’ health insurance violated section 8(a)(5).

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Bluebook (online)
700 F.3d 551, 403 U.S. App. D.C. 122, 2012 WL 6013449, 194 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2737, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klb-industries-inc-v-national-labor-relations-board-cadc-2012.