W.L. Miller Co. v. National Labor Relations Board

988 F.2d 834
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 16, 1993
DocketNos. 92-1850, 92-1885 and 92-2080
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 988 F.2d 834 (W.L. Miller Co. v. National Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W.L. Miller Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 988 F.2d 834 (8th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

This case is before us again after the National Labor Relations Board ordered W.L. Miller Company to give back pay to individuals who would have been hired at hiring halls had Miller complied with its collective bargaining agreement. Miller petitioned for review and argues that the remedy imposed is beyond that encompassed in our earlier decision, National Labor Relations Board v. W.L. Miller Co., 871 F.2d 745 (8th Cir.1989) {Miller I). The union, Eastern Missouri Laborer’s District Council also petitioned for review, arguing that the hiring hall remedy ordered was insufficient because it did not include back pay for workers who should have been hired in place of Miller’s pre-agreement crew. The Board applied for enforcement of its order. We deny enforcement of the order, deny the union’s requested relief and grant Miller’s requested relief.

The history of this case extends back to a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the Associated General Contractors of Missouri effective May 1, 1980 through April 30,. 1983. Miller had joined the Associated General Contractors in 1979. Miller declined to adopt the earlier collective bargaining agreements negotiated by the AGC, and claimed that it only designated the AGC as its bargaining agent in 1980 by “inadvertence”. Miller attempted to repudiate the 1980-83 agreement on the grounds that it was a section 8(f) pre-hire agreement terminable by the employer if the union were not designated by a majority of the employer’s workers.

The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Miller for refusing to abide by the agreement. The Board issued an order on July 23, 1987, ruling that Miller could not repudiate the agreement. In Miller I, we considered the Board’s application to enforce that order. While Miller I was pending, the Board’s General Counsel, on November 4, 1987, filed a Motion for Clarification with the Board to specifically require Miller to pay back pay to employees who would have been referred out of the union’s hiring hall if Miller had followed the hiring hall provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement. On July [836]*8368, 1988 the Board denied the motion for lack of jurisdiction because petitions for enforcement and review had been filed with this court, thus divesting the Board of jurisdiction to modify its order.

We heard argument in Miller I on June 16, 1988, and issued our decision on March 29, 1989. Applying John Deklewa & Sons, Inc., 282 N.L.R.B. 1375, (1987), enf'd sub nom., International Ass’n of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers v. NLRB, 843 F.2d 770 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 889, 109 S.Ct. 222, 102 L.Ed.2d 213 (1988), retroactively, we held that Miller could not repudiate the AGC agreement. 871 F.2d at 750. We specifically noted that the issue before us was whether Miller was required to contribute to the union’s benefit fund, and we required Miller to do so. Id.

The General Counsel then filed a second clarification motion on May 19, 1989, and the Board granted the motion for clarification ordering the hiring hall remedy. After the Board’s Regional Office issued its Compliance Specification and Notice of Hearing, the union requested review and an AU held further proceedings. The AU found that after the collective bargaining agreement became effective, Miller hired seven additional employees who had not worked in the area before. AU slip op. at 5. The AU concluded that Miller should have staffed these positions through the hiring hall and would have paid $19,401.02 in 1980 to the seven employees who would have been hired. Id. The AU did not include back pay on nine employees who had worked on Miller’s 1979 crew, since the employer was entitled to keep its pre-agreement crew. The AU identified 26 individuals who used the hiring hall in the third and fourth calendar quarters of 1980, the periods during which Miller hired the seven additional employees. He ordered Miller to pay the individuals using the hiring hall during the third and fourth quarters of 1980 the amount that had improperly gone to the seven employees actually hired. As two of the individuals who had used the hiring hall were not available for work during the third quarter, they received a smaller amount, $456.77, and twenty-four employees received $770.32. AU slip op. at 11.

The Board affirmed the AU’s rulings, findings and conclusions and adopted the recommended Supplemental Order. 306 N.L.R.B. No. 190 (Mar. 30, 1992).

Miller filed a petition for review, arguing that the hiring hall remedy was an impermissible modification of the relief affirmed in our first decision. Miller also argues that the hiring hall operated in a discriminatory fashion, making the remedy ordered contrary to the policies of the National Labor Relations Act, and that it would be manifestly unjust to order the back pay remedy with interest based upon a retroactive application of Deklewa. The union filed a petition for review, arguing that the AU should have ordered back pay for the positions filled by Miller’s pre-agreement crew as well as the seven new hires. The Board filed an application for enforcement of the Supplemental Order.

I.

Miller argues that the Board acted beyond its jurisdiction in adding the hiring hall back pay remedy. The Board maintains that the hiring hall remedy was within its discretion and is a remedy the Board has consistently recognized and applied. The Board answers the jurisdictional argument by saying that it simply clarified the scope of an existing order.

In Miller I, we specifically stated that the remedy sought was limited to certain fringe benefit payments: “The parties made clear in argument that the live issue before us is not underpayment of the employees, but rather Miller’s failure to make contributions to the Union’s benefit fund.” 871 F.2d at 749. At oral argument in the present case, counsel did not dispute that the statement was correct at the time we made it. The accuracy of the statement is further confirmed by language in a brief filed with the AU by the Board’s General Counsel before the first order in 1981 asking that Miller be required to take the affirmative action of “mak[ing] payments for all employees who have performed la[837]*837borers [sic] work since May 1, 1980 into the Union’s respective fringe benefit funds as provided for in the collective bargaining agreement.”

It is true that the language in the judgment entered following our opinion was general, ordering Miller to “[m]ake whole the ... employees [covered by the agreement], in the manner set forth in the remedy, of the Board’s decision for any losses they may have suffered as a result of [Miller’s] failure to adhere to the contract ... with interest on contributions to the union benefit fund to be awarded only from May 1, 1980, to April 30, 1983 and commencing again on July 23,1987.” N.L.R.B. v. W.L. Miller Co., 871 F.2d 745, 749-50 (8th Cir.1990). We do not consider this language probative of either party’s position.

On this record, we entertain no doubt that our opinion in Miller I was directed to the fringe benefit issue then before us as agreed by counsel.

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