National Labor Relations Board v. Bechtel Corp.

328 F.2d 28
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 1964
DocketNo. 7034
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 328 F.2d 28 (National Labor Relations Board v. Bechtel Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Labor Relations Board v. Bechtel Corp., 328 F.2d 28 (10th Cir. 1964).

Opinion

MURRAH, Chief Judge.

The N.L.R.B. petitions for enforcement of its conventional cease and desist, post notice, and make whole with back pay order, based upon its conclusionary findings that respondent Bechtel, an employer, violated Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the N.L.R.A., and that the respondent Union violated Section 8(b) (1) (A) and (2) of the Act. The gist of the findings is that Bechtel encouraged membership in the Union by discriminatorily refusing to employ certain named complainants, because they were expelled members of the Union; and, that the Union either caused Bechtel to commit the unfair labor practices, or assisted it in the commission of such practices.

The relevant background facts are that the respondent Union Lodge 83 is composed of boilermakers, iron ship builders, blacksmiths, forgers and helpers, with a membership of about 1,100 members within its territorial jurisdiction over a three and one-half states area. It has traditionally operated a Hiring Hall for boilermakers at its Kansas City headquarters and other designated places, from which it refers men to various jobs in the boilermaking trade. It is virtually the sole source for the employment of boilermakers in its jurisdictional area. As a result of an election in 1957, the Union became involved in a bitter struggle for leadership, and about 19 of the members were expelled from the Union, including the complainants involved in these proceedings. Sometime in 1958, respondent Bechtel undertook the construction of a generating plant at Lawrence, Kansas, for the Kansas Light & Power Company, with a completion deadline of April 1, 1960. At that time, Bechtel was a member of the National Constructors’ Association, and was thereby a party to a national collective bargaining agreement with the Union, which pertinently provided that the employers should hire any qualified applicant for employment on a non-discriminatory basis, and' when an employer has requested the-Union to furnish men for a job, such-men shall be selected by the Union on a non-discriminatory basis.

I. THE ALLEGED DISCRIMINATORY HIRINGS DURING THE PERIOD, FEBRUARY 24 THROUGH MARCH 27, 1959.

Bechtel did not bring any boilermakers- or welders to the job, and for the initial: hiring period between February 24th-through March 27th, it followed customary practice of hiring all of its boilermakers and welders through the Union’s Hiring Hall. Under the Hiring Hall arrangement, boilermakers, whether members of the Union or not, signed the out-of-work list, and were referred to jobs on order of the employers, either by name or on the basis of out-of-work seniority, i. e., first out of work, first referred to-a job.1 Under long-established practice,. [30]*30an employer admittedly could request any tradesman by name, because of his special skill in the work to be done. According to the findings of the Trial Examiner, “the out-of-work list which was in effect during the period when the events material here occurred, contained the names of all the complainants whenever they were unemployed, with the exception of Joseph Mueller,2 * * * ”

The complaint charged a general plan or scheme on the part of the Union, to discriminate against the expelled complainants by manipulating the out-of-work list to deny them equal opportunities for employment at “premium or desirable projects,” as they became available throughout the Union’s territorial jurisdiction; that the alleged discriminatory employment at the Bechtel project was a part and parcel of the general scheme; and, that Bechtel participated in the scheme by subserviently refusing to hire the complainants hére, because they were expelled members of the respondent Union. The Trial Examiner recommended and the Board found, however, that the proof was insufficient to support the general or jurisdiction-wide charge; and, that there was no evidence that any expelled Union member, or anyone else, was ever denied the use of the Union’s Hiring Hall facilities to obtain employment, and no evidence indicating a pattern of exclusion of expelled Union members from premium projects within its jurisdiction.3

The issues are defined and the controversy brought into focus by the Examiner’s findings to the effect that soon after the complainants were expelled from the Union, and after they had signed the Union’s out-of-work list, a group of them, headed by Leonard Adams, the unsuccessful rival of Akers in the Union conflict, determined among themselves to seek and obtain employment at the Bechtel project without referral from the Union, by filing application directly with the employer at the job site; and, that they would, at the same time, reject any referrals from the Union to other premium projects within the Union’s jurisdiction, and would hold out until their positions on the list were reached for referral to the Bechtel project. In other words, these complainants were determined to secure employment at Bechtel, either by direct application or through seniority on the out-of-work list. The unfair labor practices are apparently sustained on the theory that the Union was equally determined to prevent any of the complaining expellees from securing employment on the Bechtel project; that it referred the complaining expellees to oth[31]*31er premium projects within its jurisdiction, during the period in question, “in order to avoid referring them to respondent Bechtel’s Lawrence project4;” and, that Bechtel co-operated and participated with the Union, by refusing to employ any of the expellees, unless they were referred by the Union.

The Board adopted and apparently proceeded upon the Trial Examiner’s legal premise to the effect that if an employer, under a Hiring Hall arrangement with the Union, retains the privilege of hiring employees directly, he may not condition employment on an applicant’s clearance or referral by the Union, without violating Section 8(a) (3) and (1) of the Act. We cannot accept this legal premise as a basis for determining the validity of the charges in this case. Section 8(a) (3) and (1) condemns only a hiring hall arrangement or system, “which in fact is used to encourage and discourage union membership by discrimination in regard to hire or tenure, term or condition of employment.” Local 357, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America v. National Labor Relations Board, 365 U.S. 667, 676, 81 S.Ct. 835, 840, 6 L.Ed.2d 11.

It is not an unfair labor practice for an employer to elect to avail himself of a non-discriminatory Hiring Hall, wherein as here, everyone is permitted to sign the out-of-work list, regardless of Union affiliation or standing, and specifically agrees to abide by the out-of-work seniority rules, as a condition to the use of the Hiring Hall for employment in the Union’s jurisdictional area. Indeed, there is no objection to this hiring arrangement as such, and it is conceded that the employer could have lawfully agreed to use the Hiring Hall as an exclusive source of employment. The Board seemed to think that the vice lies in the employer’s failure to contractually agree to the exclusive use of the Hiring Hall and by the acceptance of applications for employment at the job site.

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