National Labor Relations Board v. Warehousemen's Union Local 17, International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union

451 F.2d 1240, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3056, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 6839
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 1, 1971
Docket23345
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 451 F.2d 1240 (National Labor Relations Board v. Warehousemen's Union Local 17, International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union) 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. Warehousemen's Union Local 17, International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union, 451 F.2d 1240, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3056, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 6839 (9th Cir. 1971).

Opinion

ALFRED T. GOODWIN, District Judge:

The National Labor Relations Board seeks a decree enforcing its order of May 26, 1970, 182 NLRB No. 120, against Warehousemen’s Local 17, International Longshoremen’s & Warehouse-men’s Union (ILWU).

Substantial evidence supports the board’s determination that the union violated Section 8(b) (3) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended 29 U. S.C. § 151 et seq. The union refused to sign a contract which embodied a previous agreement, and attempted, instead, to force the Los Angeles Products Company to sign a different contract. The principal question concerns the scope of the -board’s remedy.

After the expiration of a prior collective bargaining contract and during a subsequent strike, the chief' negotiator for the company proposed to the union’s representative that the expired agreement be adopted with twelve specified modifications. The union representative accepted this proposal, and the local union members ratified it and returned to work. Seven weeks later, the union’s representative refused to sign a draft of the agreement, and demanded reopening of collective bargaining.

On June 13, 1968, the board ordered the union to execute and abide by the agreement. 171 NLRB No. 166. The union refused.

On November 4, 1968, during the pen-dency of the board’s enforcement order before this court and after the em *1242 ployees had again been on strike for nearly two months, the parties entered into a new collective bargaining agreement. We remanded the case to the board for a new hearing.

After the remand, the board, in agreement with the trial examiner, found that the union had been in continuous violation of the board’s order of June 13, 1968, and of the Act by resorting to an unlawful strike.

The board ordered the union to cease and desist from its refusal to execute or honor the original contract, and to rescind the second contract, which it found to be the product of an illegal strike. The order also required the local to make the company whole for any financial expenditures made pursuant to the latter agreement which would not have been incurred under the former agreement, and to post appropriate notices.

The union argues that it was free to require further negotiations because of a mutual misunderstanding due, at least in part, to the absence of a written draft of the original contract. The trial examiner found, however, that no mutual misunderstanding occurred. He found, rather, that a comprehensive agreement was reached and its terms embodied in the contract tendered by the company on August 11, 1967. There was substantial evidence to support this finding.

It has long been established that the statutory duty to bargain in good faith includes the duty to execute a memorandum fairly incorporating the terms of an oral agreement. H. J. Heinz Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 311 U.S. 514, 526, 61 S.Ct. 320, 85 L.Ed. 309 (1941); Lozano Enterprises v. N.L.R.B., 327 F.2d 814 (9th Cir. 1964).

The union also argues that the second contract was voluntarily made. Thus, the union argues, the board has no power to order a compensatory remedy based upon a refusal to bargain. On remand, however, the board found that the new contract was not a product of voluntary collective bargaining. There was substantial evidence to support this finding. The only question before this court is whether the board’s remedy exceeds the powers conferred upon the board by Congress. We affirm.

Section 10 (c) of the Act empowers the board, upon a finding that an unfair labor practice has been committed, to issue “an order requiring such person to cease and desist from such unfair labor practice, and to take such affirmative action * * * as will effectuate the policies of this subchapter.” 61 Stat. 147, 29 U.S.C. § 160(c). That section “charges the Board with the task of devising remedies to effectuate the policies of the Act * * *. In fashioning remedies to undo the effect of violations of the Act, the Board must draw on en-lightment gained from experience * * National Labor Relations Board v. Seven-Up Bottling Co., 344 U. S. 344, 346, 73 S.Ct. 287, 289, 97 L.Ed. 377 (1953).

In Phelps Dodge Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 177, 194, 61 S.Ct. 845, 852, 85 L.Ed. 1271 (1941), the Court said:

“* * * [j]n the nature of things Congress could not catalogue all the devices and stratagems for circumventing the policies of the Act. Nor could it define the whole gamut of remedies to effectuate these policies in an infinite variety of specific situations. Congress met these difficulties by leaving the adaptation of means to end to the empiric process of administration * * *.
“ * * -x- [The Act] entrusts to an expert agency the maintenance and promotion of industrial peace
-X- * * n

The board’s order will not be disturbed “unless it can be shown that the order is a patent attempt to achieve ends other than those which can fairly be said to effectuate the policies of the Act * * Virginia Electric and Power *1243 Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 319 U.S. 533, 540, 63 S.Ct. 1214, 1218, 87 L.Ed. 1568 (1943). Such a showing has not been made in this case.

In N.L.R.B. v. Strong, 393 U.S. 357, 89 S.Ct. 541, 21 L.Ed.2d 546 (1969), the board’s authority to order a compensatory remedy in a refusal-to-bargain situation was made quite clear.

“Here the unfair labor practice was the failure of the employer to sign and acknowledge the existence of a collective bargaining agreement which had been negotiated and concluded on his behalf * * * ” 393 U.S. at 359, 89 S.Ct. at 543.
“* * * The Board is not trespassing on forbidden territory when it inquires whether negotiations have produced a bargain which the employer has refused to sign and honor ■>:- To this extent the collective contract is the Board’s affair, and an effective remedy for refusal to sign is its proper business * * 393 U.S. at 361, 89 S.Ct. at 545.
“ * * * The remedy ordered by the Board included a direction to pay the fringe benefits which would have been paid had the employer signed the agreement and thereby recognized his legal obligations which had matured during the collective bargaining process. This is no more than the Act and eases like Phelps Dodge

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
451 F.2d 1240, 78 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3056, 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 6839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-warehousemens-union-local-17-ca9-1971.