National Labor Relations Board v. Butts

554 F. Supp. 136, 112 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3013, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16789
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedDecember 20, 1982
DocketCiv. A. No. 82-2920
StatusPublished

This text of 554 F. Supp. 136 (National Labor Relations Board v. Butts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana 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. Butts, 554 F. Supp. 136, 112 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3013, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16789 (E.D. La. 1982).

Opinion

CASSIBRY, District Judge:

On July 12, 1982 the National Labor Relations Board (hereafter “the NLRB”) filed its complaint for preliminary and permanent injunction and for declaratory judgment, and moved for preliminary injunction, alleging that a state district court in Louisiana had acted in a labor dispute which was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the NLRB.

On July 15, 1982 a hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction was set for September 8, 1982. The defendants filed no responsive pleadings either to the complaint or to the motion for preliminary injunction until September 7, 1982 at 12:42 P.M. when they filed an answer which was in effect a general denial of the factual allegations. The NLRB did not receive this pleading prior to the hearing on September 8.

The motion for preliminary injunction was granted at the close of the hearing. This ruling was set aside on September 23, 1982 in order to permit the NLRB to produce proof of facts made necessary by the [137]*137defendants’ general denial and refusal after the hearing to enter into any stipulation of facts. The matter was set for further hearing on November 10, 1982.

The NLRB thereafter moved for summary judgment, which was opposed, and this motion was denied at the hearing on November 10. After additional proof of the NLRB’s allegations of fact was received, the order granting the motion for preliminary injunction was reinstated.

After due consideration of the evidence and the law, the Court concludes that no just reason appears for delaying the granting of relief on the complaint for permanent injunction and declaratory judgment. The decision to grant injunctive and declaratory relief is based upon the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff, National Labor Relations Board is an agency of the United States created by and charged with exclusive administration of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended (29 U.S.C. Sec. 151, et seq.).

2. Defendants are employees of Industrial Cleaning Services, Inc.

3. Industrial Cleaning Services, Inc. (hereafter “ICS”) is a Louisiana corporation which performs building maintenance at the Slidell, Louisiana facility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (hereafter “NASA”).

4. Systems Development Corporation (hereafter “SDC”) is engaged in the business of providing computer services to NASA at NASA’s Slidell, Louisiana facility.

5. On June 23,1977, the .NLRB certified the New Orleans Metal Trades Council, AFL-CIO (hereafter “the Union”) as the exclusive collective-bargaining representatives of a unit of maintenance employees employed by SDC at NASA’s Slidell, Louisiana facility. The Union is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the National Labor Relations Act.

6. Until Nov’ember 1981, SDC employed 14 employees and one supervisor to perform the maintenance work at NASA’s Slidell, Louisiana facility. In November 1981, SDC subcontracted the maintenance work at NASA’s Slidell facility to ICS. ICS hired six (6) of the SDC employees but did not employ eight (8) individuals who had been employed by SDC as maintenance employees and were in the certified bargaining unit. In November 1981, ICS also hired seven (7) individuals not previously employed by SDC at NASA including Leslié Butts, Albert Dickerson and Jesse Mongit.

7. On December 3, 1981, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge against ICS with Region 15 (New Orleans) of the NLRB (Board Case No. 15-CA-8401). On January 15,1982, the Regional Director, on behalf of the NLRB’s General Counsel, issued a complaint alleging that, following an award of a subcontract by SDC, ICS violated Section 8(a)(3) and (1) of the NLRA by refusing to hire eight (8) of SDC’s employees because of their membership in or support of the Union, in order to discourage further union activity, and/or in order to avoid any obligation to bargain with the Union. The complaint further alleged that ICS’ refusal to recognize and bargain with the Union violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the NLRA because the Union would continue to enjoy majority status were it not for ICS’ discriminatory hiring and because ICS was a legal successor to SDC.

8. On February 5, 1982, the Union and ICS executed a Memorandum of Agreement. The agreement required ICS to recognize and enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the Union and to offer immediate reinstatement with backpay to seven (7) named former SDC employees who had been denied employment by ICS in November 1981. On March 4, 1982, ICS and the union executed a collective bargaining agreement; this agreement did not contain a union security provision.

9. As a result of the February 1982, Memorandum of Agreement, the Regional Director, on February 5,1982, approved the Union’s request to withdraw its unfair labor practice charge and dismissed the unfair labor practice complaint.

[138]*13810. In early February 1982, ICS notified employees Butts, Dickerson, and Mongit that they would be terminated on February 23, 1982.

11. On February 22,1982, Butts, Dickerson and Mongit filed a petition in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, (Leslie Butts, et al. v. Industrial Cleaning Services, et al., No. 82-2583),1 to enjoin ICS from terminating them, as announced on February 23. The petition alleged that they were to be discharged because the Union’s agreement to withdraw its Board charge was contingent upon ICS’ replacing Butts, Dickerson, and Mongit with Union members and that such action violated Louisiana’s “Right to Work” laws (R.S. 23:981, et seq.).

12. Following execution of the Memorandum of Agreement on February 5, 1982, ICS offered reinstatement to the seven employees named in the agreement; six of these individuals accepted reinstatement. The individuals were reinstated on or about February 23, 1982.

13. On or about February 23, 1982, ICS terminated Butts, Dickerson and Mongit.

14. On March 5, 1982, the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting ICS from terminating defendants and ordering their reinstatement as of February 23, 1982. The Court further ordered that, if necessary, ICS should terminate three (3) of the former SDC employees rehired at the time of defendants’ discharges. The court based its order on a conclusion that defendants were discharged solely because they were not union members, in violation of Louisiana’s right to work laws.

15. On March 24, 1982, following a rehearing, the state court reaffirmed the original preliminary injunction. The state court, noting that states have authority to prohibit the enforcement of union security clauses, held that, although the agreement between the Union and ICS “[did] not per se contain a union security agreement or clause,” it “amounts to a union security agreement which is inconsistent with the public policy behind the right-to-work act.” ICS thereafter filed an appeal with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, State of Louisiana.

16. On or about March 26, 1982, ICS rehired Butts, Dickerson and Mongit pursuant to the state court injunction.

17. On or about March 26, 1982, three (3) of the SDC employees rehired pursuant to the settlement agreement were discharged.

18.

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554 F. Supp. 136, 112 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3013, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-butts-laed-1982.