Amax Coal Co. v. N.L.R.B.
| Decision Date | 12 February 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 1854,Nos. 78-2310,78-2489,1854,s. 78-2310 |
| Citation | 614 F.2d 872 |
| Parties | 103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2482, 88 Lab.Cas. P 11,839, 2 Employee Benefits Ca 1126 AMAX COAL COMPANY, a Division of Amax, Inc., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, United Mine Workers of America, Local, and United Mine Workers of America, Intervenors. UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL NO. 1854 and United Mine Workers of America, Petitioners, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Amax Coal Company, a Division of Amax, Inc., Intervenor. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Daniel F. Gruender (argued), and Philip M. Prince, Shimmel, Hill, Bishop & Gruender, P. C., Phoenix, Ariz., Raymond K. Denworth, Jr., Drinker, Biddle & Reath, Philadelphia, Pa., for Amax Coal Co.
Carol A. De Deo, Richard B. Bader (argued), Attys., John S. Irving, Gen. Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Robert E. Allen, Acting Associate Gen. Counsel, Elliott Moore, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for National Labor Relations Board.
J. Craig Kuhn (argued), and Melvin P. Stein (argued), Pittsburgh, Pa., Harrison Combs, Gen. Counsel, Willard P. Owens, Counsel, United Mine Workers of America, Washington, D. C., Paul M. Puskar, Kuhn, Engle & Stein, Pittsburgh, Pa., for United Mine Workers of America.
Before GIBBONS * and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges and ZIEGLER, District Judge. **
This case is before the Court upon the petitions of Amax Coal Company, a division of Amax, Inc., (Amax or the Company) and the United Mine Workers of America (the Union or UMWA) to review an order of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board). The Board found that the Union violated the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq., (the Act) by threatening to strike and by striking to coerce Amax into bargaining through a multi-employer group; by refusing to meet and bargain separately with Amax before February 3, 1975; by striking without first notifying the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service about its dispute with Amax; by bargaining to impasse and striking in support of its demands that the Company agree to six contract clauses in violation of Section 8(e) of the Act. 29 U.S.C. § 158(e). The Board also found that the Union did not violate the Act by bargaining to impasse upon several other clauses that the General Counsel had alleged to be nonmandatory or unlawful, and that neither party had engaged in overall bad faith bargaining. Finally, the Board declined to decide whether the Union had violated the Act by insisting upon several other contract clause proposals because the violations had not been alleged in the complaint. The Company has intervened in the proceeding initiated by the Union; the Union has intervened in the proceeding initiated by the Company; and the Board has filed a cross-application for enforcement of its order. The cases have been consolidated for the purposes of briefing and argument.
Because we hold that the management trustee of this Union's pension and welfare fund is a collective bargaining representative within the meaning of Section 8(b)(1)(B), we conclude that the Union violated the Act by striking to obtain Amax's participation in the fund whose management trustee is not selected by Amax. We also conclude that the Union bargained to impasse on two clauses that were not mandatory subjects of bargaining. Accordingly, the Company's petition for review will be granted and the Board's cross-application for enforcement of its order will be denied insofar as they relate to the trust fund representatives and to the "enabling" and "coal lands" clauses. The Union's petition for review will be denied.
Amax Coal Company, a division of Amax, Inc., is in the business of operating coal mines, primarily bituminous coal mines in the midwestern United States. It bargains with the United Mine Workers of America (the Union or the UMWA) for its midwestern mines as a member of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA). In 1972, Amax opened the Belle Ayr Mine in Gillette, Wyoming, its first sub-bituminous surface mine, and agreed to a contract with the Union covering that mine. The contract contained most of the same terms as the national BCOA contract. The BCOA contract, and the similar contracts signed by the western surface mines, were scheduled to terminate on November 12, 1974.
In 1974, the Union decided to seek contract terms for the western mines that would depart significantly from the BCOA's present contract terms. The Union proposed that a multi-employer bargaining group be formed by the western mining companies. Those companies that agreed to bargain through a multi-employer association were to be granted sixty day extensions of their contracts. Amax's request for this sixty day extension was rejected by the Union. Additionally, the Union made clear that it viewed Amax as a member of the multi-employer bargaining association and warned that App., at 38a. Amax thereafter filed the initial unfair labor practice charge in this case alleging, inter alia, that the Union's refusal to bargain separately with Amax violated the Act.
Amax made two more unsuccessful attempts to initiate bargaining with the Union. On January 11, Amax negotiators hand-delivered a new contract offer to UMWA's General Counsel Joseph Yablonski in a last minute effort to avoid the strike scheduled for the next day. Yablonski refused even to meet with them and, on January 12, the Union struck Amax and the other western mines as scheduled. On January 18, Amax sent the Union a telegram requesting negotiations; this request was ignored. Upon learning that the Board's General Counsel intended to seek an injunction against the Union's conduct, Yablonski agreed to meet separately with Amax and to submit to Amax the new contract proposal that the Union had prepared for its other negotiations. 1
The parties held eight negotiating sessions between February 3 and February 18. Although they reached tentative agreements on more than forty items included in the Union's proposal and the Union agreed to accommodate Amax on several items, the parties remained far apart on many basic issues. Three more unsuccessful meetings were held between February 26 and March 7. 2
On March 14, Elkins Payne, Amax's Vice-President, and Daniel Gruender, Amax's attorney, met with Daniel Edelman, the Union's negotiator, and presented him with a complete contract proposal, which Payne stated was Amax's final offer. 3 Payne stated that this was a package proposal, and that the Union must either accept or reject the entire package. He also emphasized that unless the Union agreed to accept the entire final proposal by the close of the business day on March 17 Amax would consider the proposal rejected and would proceed to implement its terms.
The Union's bargaining council did not begin considering Amax's proposal until the afternoon of March 17 and had not reached a final decision by the end of the day. Amax considered the Union's failure to accept the proposal as a rejection. Within the next week, the Belle Ayr Mine was again in operation under the terms of Amax's final proposal. On April 11, the Union formally rejected Amax's proposal.
The parties had only one negotiating session during the three months following Amax's implementation of its final proposal. Although all of the major issues were discussed during this meeting on May 28, no progress was made. 4 Neither party made any concessions.
Following an unofficial discussion in June with Amax Vice-President Roger Sonnemann, Yablonski submitted a new contract proposal to the Company on July 1, that contained concessions in almost every area of dispute. The new proposal did not, however, compromise the Union's position on the termination date, the pension and welfare funds, or the reinstatement of strikers.
On July 17, Yablonski sent a telegram to Amax Board Chairman Ian MacGregor with a copy to Payne, expressing his frustration at having heard nothing from Amax's negotiators since he had submitted the new contract proposal. The telegram further stated that if no agreement was reached by July 22, the date set for an Amax stockholders meeting, the Union intended to file antitrust charges against Amax with the Federal Trade Commission. Payne agreed to meet with Yablonski on July 21.
Little was accomplished at the negotiations on July 21 and 22. Amax continued to reject all but a few relatively minor items in the Union's new proposal. On the afternoon of July 22, the Union filed charges with the FTC; Union representatives also picketed Amax's stockholders meeting and voiced their complaints about the negotiations during the meeting. Although negotiations resumed on August 7 and 8, they again proved unproductive. On August 18 and 19 Yablonski and Payne exchanged telegrams accusing each other of responsibility for the negotiating deadlock.
Negotiations continued sporadically through the fall and winter of 1975. On November 14 the Union made a new contract offer containing more concessions. The parties made no progress toward an agreement, however, and negotiations ended in February, 1976 amid reciprocal accusations of bad faith.
Section 8(b)(1)(B) makes it an unfair labor practice for a union "to restrain or coerce . . . an employer in the selection of his representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining . . .." 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(1)(B). The Board found that "by attempting to compel (Amax) to relinquish its right to negotiate independently and instead negotiate through a multi-employer association, the Union engaged in...
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