National Labor Relations Board v. International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Local 433

600 F.2d 770, 101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3119, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 13176
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJuly 16, 1979
Docket77-2653
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 600 F.2d 770 (National Labor Relations Board v. International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Local 433) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Local 433, 600 F.2d 770, 101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3119, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 13176 (9th Cir. 1979).

Opinion

*773 TANG, Circuit Judge:

The National Labor Relations Board petitions for enforcement of its order against the respondent International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Local 433. The order directs that the Union cease and desist from operating its exclusive hiring hall in disregard of its collective bargaining agreement and from engaging in threats and acts of violence against employees who protest against the manner in which the hall is run. It also directs that the Union “make whole” those persons who were unlawfully refused dispatch. The Union, raising mostly procedural objections, argues against enforcement. We order enforcement.

After Waldo F. Kurstens, an individual, charged that the Union was engaging in unfair labor practices, the Board issued a complaint against the Union alleging that the hiring hall practices of the Union violated §§ 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(b)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(b)(1)(A) and 158(b)(2) (1970). 1 The complaint was heard before an administrative law judge (ALJ), whose findings of fact are virtually undisputed by the Union. We summarize these findings as follows.

The Union has collective bargaining agreements with a number of multi-em-ployer associations and individual employers who hire ironworkers. The contract provides that the hiring of ironworkers who are employed by the contracting employers is to be done pursuant to § 5 of the contract.

Section 5 allows an employer to employ, without resort to the hiring hall, a minimum number of “key employees”. Additionally, the employers may directly employ “regular” employees, i. e., employees who worked 50% of their working time during the past 12 months for the employer. All other employees must be hired through the union’s exclusive hiring hall.

When the employer hires through the hall, it may do so in two ways. It may hire employees “by name”; in such cases, the named employees may be in the ratio of three for every five employees hired, without regard to their position on the registration lists. All other journeymen required by the employers are furnished by, and referred through, the hiring office of the Union on an “open order” basis.

The contract specifies an orderly procedure for referring employees who are requested on an open order basis. First, the contract defines five categories of applicants for employment, assigning the highest priority to workers with the most experience in the trade and in the area. Each worker seeking employment through the hall must sign the “out of work” list for his priority group. After he does so, the business agent who is in charge of the hall at the time gives the worker an out-of-work number. Every Monday there is a general roll call of the out-of-work list, and applicants on the list who answer the roll call are given new out-of-work numbers based on the number of dispatches made the previous week. As ironworkers with the lowest numbers are dispatched, applicants who appear at the hiring hall move down on the list and receive lower numbers. Thus, those on the out-of-work list who come to the hall and are unemployed the longest should have the lowest numbers while new applicants (such as those returning from jobs) should have the highest numbers.

When an employer who is bound by the contract needs ironworkers from the hiring hall, he notifies a Union agent of his needs and an order is placed for those workers. Sometimes the employer specifically states what types of skills are needed; at other times the agent knows from experience *774 what skills are needed and makes a judgment about the skills to be required.

After receiving the order, the Union business agent in charge of the hall at the time calls out the order on a public address system in the hall. He specifies the name of the employer and the type of work that is to be done. The calls are made between 8 and 10:30 A.M. and the applicant must be in the hall when the call is made. Often there are as many as 300 applicants on the out-of-work list that are present in the hall when the calls are made. Anyone with an out-of-work number can bid on a job and the bidding worker with the lowest number receives the job. 2 The worker is then given a referral slip to the job signed by the business agent in charge and reports to work.

The ALJ found 76 specific instances during a ten month period in which the Union dispatched employees without adhering to the referral procedure. The term “backd-ooring” is used to describe the situation when the Union makes a job referral in a manner that bypasses the prescribed referral procedure.

In his findings, the ALJ elaborated on each instance of backdoor referrals. The backdooring fell into three categories. First, the Union dispatched individuals who were not eligible for dispatch because they were not on the out-of-work list. Second, the Union filled open orders by announcing calls “by name”, thus preventing applicants on the out-of-work lists from bidding on these jobs. Third, the Union dispatched employees after receiving open orders without announcing the orders at the hall, thereby bypassing the entire referral procedure. In these situations, the Union gave employees referral slips at places outside the hiring hall.

The Union’s business agents were quite open with regard to their practice of backd-ooring employees. On numerous occasions, some of them engaged in threats and violence to protect that practice. 3

The AU found that the Union’s circumvention of the referral procedure was not isolated or keyed to emergency situations. Instead, they were so “massive” in scale as to undermine the procedure and “substitute the business agents’ clandestine desires for the objective criteria set forth in the contract.”

The ALJ concluded:
Considering the statements and actions of Respondent’s business agents, together with the 76 specific incidents of backdoor-ing documented by the General Counsel, it is apparent that Respondent’s business agents divided Respondent’s jurisdiction into fiefdoms from which they dispensed patronage. Some of the business agents *775 engaged in violence and threats of violence to enforce their practice of back-dooring employees. The actions of the business agents were such as to give applicants for employment a reasonable basis for believing that access to employment depended on securing the good will of the business agents rather than on the objective criteria of the hiring hall.

The ALJ determined that the Union breached its duty of fair representation by its backdooring practices, and therefore, it breached §§ 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(b)(2) of the Act. It recommended that the Union be ordered to operate its hiring hall in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. It also recommended that the Union be ordered to make whole the workers injured by the Union’s referral practices.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
600 F.2d 770, 101 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3119, 1979 U.S. App. LEXIS 13176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-international-association-of-bridge-ca9-1979.