Production Workers Union of Chicago and Vicinity, Local 707 v. N.L.R.B.
| Decision Date | 20 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 96-3400,96-3833,s. 96-3400 |
| Citation | 161 F.3d 1047 |
| Parties | 159 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2851, 136 Lab.Cas. P 10,290 PRODUCTION WORKERS UNION OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY, LOCAL 707, Petitioner, Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Cross-Petitioner, and Faustino Ramos, Intervening Respondent, Cross-Intervening Petitioner. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Patrick J. Calihan (argued), Chicago, IL, for Production Workers Union of Chicago and Vicinity in No. 96-3400.
Patrick J. Calihan (argued), Chicago, IL, Cora Vaughin, Gary, IN, for Production Workers Union of Chicago and Vicinity in No. 96-3833.
Elizabeth Kinney, National Labor Relations Board, Region 13, Chicago, IL, John D. Burgoyne, National Labor Relations Board, Appellete Court, Enforcement Litigation, Washington, DC, for National Labor Relation Board in No. 96-3400.
Steven B. Goldstein (argued), National Labor Relations Board, Contempt Litigation Branch, Washington, DC, Elizabeth Kinney, National Labor Relations Board, Region 13, Chicago, IL, John D. Burgoyne, National Labor Relations Board, Appellete Court, Enforcement Litigation, Washington, DC, for National Labor Relation Board in No. 96-3833.
Glenn M. Taubman (argued), National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation, Springfield, VA, for Faustino Ramos.
Before BAUER, COFFEY and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
Mavo Leasing, Inc. ("Mavo"), an Illinois corporation, leases personnel to meat-packing plants. In 1990, three Mavo employees, intervenor-respondent Faustino Ramos ("Ramos"), Michael Beal ("Beal") and Francisco Murillo ("Murillo"), were discharged by Mavo for failing to pay union dues to the Production Workers Union of Chicago and Vicinity, Local 707 ("PWU"), required under the collective-bargaining agreement between the PWU and Mavo. Ramos and Murillo filed charges against the PWU alleging that it violated the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), 29 U.S.C. § 158, when it terminated the three employees without advising them of their right to dispute unauthorized union expenditures not related to collective- bargaining. Administrative Law Judge Richard A. Scully found that the PWU never did have an affirmative obligation to inform non-union member employees of their right to object to union expenditures not related to collective-bargaining. On August 27, 1996, the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") found that the PWU violated section 8(b)(1)(A) and (2) of the NLRA by requesting and causing Mavo to fire the three employees. The PWU petitioned this Court for review of the NLRB decision and the NLRB filed a cross-application for enforcement of its order. We order the enforcement of the decision of the NLRB.
In 1984, AMA Leasing, Ltd. ("AMA"), recognized the PWU as bargaining representative for its employees at the Donna meat packing plant in Forest Park, Illinois, and entered into a collective-bargaining agreement with the PWU. While AMA employees, Ramos and Beal joined the PWU and paid membership fees. Shortly thereafter, the NLRB determined that because the PWU was recognized by AMA before AMA began business operations, AMA's 1984 recognition of the PWU as its employees' bargaining representative was a violation of section 8(b)(1)(A) of the NLRA. The NLRB ordered the PWU to cease its activities as a bargaining representative and return all fees and dues collected from AMA employees, including Ramos and Beal. In 1986, Mavo assumed the meat packing operations at the Donna plant, and hired most of the employees who had been previously working for AMA at Donna. Subsequently, Mavo employees elected the PWU as their bargaining representative, which resulted in the certification of the PWU by the NLRB as the exclusive bargaining representative of Mavo's employees at the Donna plant. Although Ramos, Murillo and Beal were all Mavo employees, they refused to pay any union dues to the PWU. 1 Pursuant to the certification of the PWU, Mavo and the PWU entered into a collective-bargaining agreement with a "union security" clause conditioning Mavo employees' employment on the payment of union dues to the PWU. The clause provided:
It shall be a condition of employment that all employees of Employer covered by this Agreement who are members of the Union in good standing on the date on which this Agreement is signed shall remain members in good standing, and those who are not members on the date on which this Agreement is signed shall, on the thirtieth (30th) day following the date on which the Agreement is signed, become and remain members in good standing in the Union. It shall also be a condition of employment that all employees covered by this Agreement and hired on or after the date on which this Agreement is signed shall, on the thirty-first (31st) day following the beginning of such employment, become and remain members in good standing in this Union.
Under the agreement, all Mavo employees, union members or not, were obligated to submit dues to the union in order to finance the costs of the union's collective-bargaining activities. Beginning in late 1989, the PWU sent multiple notices to all employees covered by the collective-bargaining agreement that the payment of union dues was required as a condition of their employment at Mavo. Ramos, Beal and Murillo contend that they never received these notices. On January 23, 1990, a final notice was delivered to Ramos, Beal and Murillo stating that if payment of the dues was not made by February 7, 1990, their employment with Mavo would be terminated.
On February 6, Ramos contacted Sam Cozzo, PWU president and business representative, and requested an extension on the due date of his back dues. Ramos alleges that Cozzo extended the payment date to February 8, 1990, but was on vacation on the February date and failed to authorize another PWU representative to collect the payment from Ramos. Alternatively, Cozzo alleges that Ramos's request was premised on Ramos's desire to contact his lawyer about the lawfulness of the payments and that Cozzo denied this request. Ramos, Beal and Murillo failed to pay the back dues by the due date set by the PWU. On February 8, 1990, Mavo, at the direction of the PWU, ended the employment of Ramos, Beal and Murillo.
Ramos and Murillo filed charges with the NLRB against the PWU for wrongfully causing Mavo to discharge them for failure to pay their dues in a timely fashion. Ramos and Murillo alleged that the Supreme Court's holding in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735, 108 S.Ct. 2641, 101 L.Ed.2d 634 (1988), required the PWU to notify them of their right to object to dues expenditures not germane to collective-bargaining before discharging them. In Beck, the Supreme Court held that section 8(a)(3) of the NLRA does not permit a union, over the objections of non-union member employees who pay union dues pursuant to collective-bargaining agreements, to expend funds collected pursuant to a union security clause on any activities unrelated to: (1) collective-bargaining; (2) contract administration; or (3) grievance adjustment.
Administrative Law Judge Scully found that the Beck case did not establish an affirmative obligation on the part of the PWU to provide notice to the employees of their right to dispute certain non-representation expenditures made by the PWU before discharge. Although Ramos and Beal were dues-paying members of the PWU while employees of AMA, the NLRB effectively terminated these memberships when it deemed the collective-bargaining agreement between AMA and the PWU unlawful. Ramos and Beal both signed a joint application for life insurance and union membership after the lawful collective-bargaining agreement was established, but no dues or fees were ever paid to the PWU by either Ramos or Beal. Similarly, Murillo never paid dues to the PWU. Two days before Mavo terminated his employment, Murillo gave a PWU steward a slip authorizing the PWU to deduct union dues from his paychecks, but the slip was never filed with the union.
On appeal, a three-member panel of the NLRB found that the PWU caused Mavo to unlawfully terminate the employment of Ramos, Beal and Murillo as non-union members and ordered the PWU to affirmatively request Mavo to reinstate their employment. In addition, the panel ordered the PWU to make Ramos, Beal and Murillo whole for any lost wages and benefits they suffered as a result of the PWU's conduct.
The petitioner contends that the NLRB erred in determining that the PWU violated sections 8(b)(1)(A) and (2) of the NLRA by requesting and causing Mavo to discharge nonmembers Ramos, Beal and Murillo through enforcement of the union security agreement between Mavo and the PWU for nonpayment of union dues without first notifying them of their right to object to the union's expenditures that are not germane to collective bargaining under Beck.
The Supreme Court has emphasized on more than one occasion that "the NLRB has the primary responsibility for developing and applying national labor policy." NLRB v. Curtin Matheson Scientific, Inc., 494 U.S. 775, 786, 110 S.Ct. 1542, 1549, 108 L.Ed.2d 801 (1990) (citations omitted).
Because it is to the Board that Congress entrusted the task of applying the [NLRA's] general prohibitory language in the light of the infinite combinations of events which might be charged as violative of its terms, that body, if it is to accomplish the task which Congress set for it, necessarily must have authority to formulate rules to fill the interstices of the broad statutory provisions.
Beth Israel Hospital v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 483, 500-01, 98 S.Ct. 2463, 2473, 57 L.Ed.2d 370 (1978) (citation and internal quotation omitted). In circumstances where the NLRA is "silent or ambiguous" with respect to the issues involved, the NLRB's interpretation of what obligations the parties have under the NLRA will be affirmed if it is...
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