Sandusky Mall Co. v. National Labor Relations Board

242 F.3d 682
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 5, 2001
DocketNos. 99-6400, 99-6596
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 242 F.3d 682 (Sandusky Mall Co. v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sandusky Mall Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 242 F.3d 682 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION

WELLFORD, Circuit Judge.

Before this court is an appeal from a decision by a divided National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) involving handbill-ing by union members in the mall, owned and operated by Sandusky Mall Company (“Sandusky”).

Sandusky is a private, limited partnership that owns and operates Sandusky Mall (“mall”), an enclosed mall in San-dusky, Ohio. The mall contains ninety-six stores and a central concourse, which provides access to the stores, and within the concourse are places to sit and also space leased for booths. The mall manager is responsible for enforcing Sandusky’s policy against handbilling and solicitation of mall customers.1 Responsible for the good will and successful marketing of the mall, the manager decides whether to lease space for temporary displays. Permission for temporary use is granted in writing and may be gratis, as directed by the mall manager.

The mall driveways, however, are posted with signs which read “soliciting and posting of bills prohibited.” One of those signs is on the driveway in front of the Sears store at one end of the mall, and the Attivo location, now in controversy, is near Sears and its mall entrance. The mall entrance was posted with “no soliciting” signs.

In November, 1991, intervenor Northeast Ohio District Council of Carpenters, United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, AFL-CIO (“union”) learned that a mall tenant, Attivo, hired a non-union construction contractor, R.E. Crawford Construction Co. (“Crawford”), to renovate its store. In November and December, the union distributed handbills urging mall customers not to patronize Attivo because of its hiring of a non-union contractor, which the union contended had undermined local wage standards.2 The union handbillers were not employees of Sandusky, Attivo, or Crawford. The union also threatened to handbill another mall tenant, OfficeMax, to protest its hiring of a non-union contractor. Sandusky’s attorney notified the union’s representative on November 12, 1992, that any handbillers on mall property would be considered trespassers and would not be permitted to hand out such handbills. On December 3, 1992, the union again handbilled inside the mall near Attivo’s entrance, and a mall [685]*685security guard told the handbillers they were not permitted to handbill on the .mall property and must leave. The handbillers left but returned the next day, and Montevideo, the mall manager, again asked them to leave and delivered a letter from San-dusky’s attorney. The union handbillers left shortly but returned on December 16, 1992, and refused to leave at the security guard’s request. When the mall manager called the Perkins Township police and the handbillers refused to obey the police’s orders, they were arrested for trespass under Ohio Rev.Code § 2911.21.

The union then promptly filed an unfair labor practice charge against Sandusky, and on January 29,1993, the NLRB’s General Counsel issued, and later amended, a complaint alleging that Sandusky had violated § 8(a)(1) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1). The parties agreed to waive a hearing before an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) and transfer the case to the Board itself for a decision on stipulated facts. The Board accepted the stipulated record and motion to transfer the case to the Board for decision. Nearly four years later, the Board found that Sandusky violated the Act and issued its decision. San-dusky filed a timely petition for review, and the Board filed a cross-application for enforcement. This court granted the union’s motion to intervene in this controversy-

In addition to filing the complaint on January 29, 1993, the Regional Director of the NLRB notified Sandusky by letter to cease the trespass prosecution against union representatives within seven days. Very promptly Sandusky informed the Regional Director and the clerk of the court in which the prosecution was pending that it would not take any further action in the trespass prosecution unless this case were resolved in its favor. Later, the local court dismissed both trespass charges against the union representatives and, at their request, sealed the record without opposition by Sandusky.

The specific issue before this court is whether Sandusky may be compelled to permit non-employee union members to trespass on the mail’s property for the purpose of distributing handbills urging mall customers not to patronize non-union employers. This issue is a difficult one, but it is not one of first impression. We addressed precisely that issue in Cleveland Real Estate Partners v. NLRB, 95 F.3d 457 (6th Cir.1996). The sharp divide among members of the Board in the case before us today indicates the Board’s difficulty with this issue.

I. EFFECT OF CLEVELAND REAL ESTATE PARTNERS

We are normally bound by the precedent established by a decision on a particular issue by a prior panel of our court. The Board majority, at best, inferentially acknowledged its burden to persuade us to deny the efficacy of Cleveland Real Estate Partners by stating:

We are mindful that the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in which this case arises, has rejected the Board’s interpretation of “discrimination” as used in Babcock & Wilcox.3 In Cleveland Real Estate Partners, the Board adopted the administrative law judge’s finding that the employer dis-criminatorily prohibited nonemployee union representatives from distributing handbills directed at shoppers to discourage them from patronizing a nonunion retailer in the mall because it permitted nonlabor related handbilling and solicitations by others in the mall. The Sixth Circuit denied enforcement of the Board’s order, holding that, post-Lechmere,4 “discrimination” as used in Babcock & Wilcox, “means favoring one union over another, or allowing employ-’ er-related information while barring [686]*686similar union-related information.” We respectfully disagree with the Sixth Circuit’s conclusion and adhere to our view that an employer that denies a union access while regularly allowing nonunion organizations to solicit and distribute on its property unlawfully discriminates against union solicitation.

Sandusky Mall Co., 329 N.L.R.B. No. 62 (Sept. 30, 1999) (footnotes and citations omitted).

The discrimination to which the Board refers is the so-called “discrimination exception” to the general rule as explained by the Supreme Court in NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox, 351 U.S. 105, 112, 76 S.Ct. 679, 100 L.Ed. 975 (1956):

“[A]n employer may validly post his property against nonemployee distribution of union literature if reasonable efforts by the union through other available channels of communication will enable it to reach the employees with its message, and if the employer’s notice or order does not discriminate against the union by allowing other distribution.”

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242 F.3d 682, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sandusky-mall-co-v-national-labor-relations-board-ca6-2001.