AMF Bowling Co., Inc. v. N.L.R.B., AFL-CI
| Decision Date | 29 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | 94-2256,AFL-CI,CL,I,Nos. 94-2150,s. 94-2150 |
| Citation | 63 F.3d 1293 |
| Parties | 150 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2134, 64 USLW 2192, 130 Lab.Cas. P 11,404 AMF BOWLING COMPANY, INCORPORATED, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, District 4, United Steelworkers of America,ntervenor. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. AMF BOWLING COMPANY, INCORPORATED, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: R. Daniel Bordoni, Bond, Schoeneck & King, L.L.P., Syracuse, NY, for petitioner. David S. Habenstreit, N.L.R.B., Washington, DC, for respondent. James R. LaVaute, Blitman & King, Syracuse, NY, for intervenor. ON BRIEF: W. Carter Younger, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Richmond, VA, for petitioner. Frederick L. Feinstein, Gen. Counsel, Linda Sher, Acting Associate Gen. Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, Linda Dreeben, Supervisory Atty., N.L.R.B., Washington, DC, for respondent.
Before NIEMEYER and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges, and BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.
The petition for review is granted and the cross-petition for enforcement is denied by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge HAMILTON joined. Senior Judge BUTZNER wrote a dissenting opinion.
When AMF Bowling Company, Incorporated, failed to obtain wage concessions at its Lowville, New York, plant through bargaining with the United Steelworkers of America AFL-CIO, CLC, District 4, it declared an impasse and unilaterally implemented its last wage offer. Thereafter, when the employees voted that they no longer wished to be represented by the Steelworkers, AMF withdrew recognition of the Union. On the Union's charges of unfair labor practices, the NLRB found that, although AMF bargained in good faith, its declaration of an impasse was premature. Accordingly, the Board concluded that AMF's subsequent acts violated sections 8(a)(5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act.
Because we conclude that the Board failed to recognize that the parties had reached a valid impasse, we grant AMF's petition for review and deny the Board's cross-petition to enforce its order.
Minstar, Inc. sold its AMF Bowling Division to private investors in August 1986. The division, which became AMF Bowling Company, Incorporated, manufactured bowling pins and lanes at its plant in Lowville, New York, and related equipment at its plant in Shelby, Ohio. After taking over AMF in November 1986, the new owners sought to reverse $7 million in losses suffered in 1986 at the two plants and to make the company competitive. They cut expenses by $10 million and laid off 172 salaried non-bargaining unit employees. A few months before selling the Bowling Division of AMF, Minstar had successfully negotiated a 24% wage cut and 14% benefit cut for the employees at the Shelby plant. The new owners likewise sought to reduce the labor costs fixed by the collective bargaining agreement with the union employees at the Lowville plant, whose wages exceeded those in the relevant job market. With the collective bargaining agreement governing those wages scheduled to expire on December 8, 1986, the new owners believed that the Lowville employees should bear their share of cost reductions.
AMF's objectives for negotiations with the Lowville employees were to reduce the weighted average wage from $9.00 per hour to a level between $7.50 and $8.00 per hour, and to reduce the cost of benefits. With the Shelby agreement in mind, the new owners expected that the Union would agree to some wage concessions, reducing AMF's existing labor expenses.
Shortly before the new owners took over AMF, the Union notified the company that it was terminating the existing collective bargaining agreement, which expired December 8, 1986, and was requesting bargaining on a new agreement. And after the new owners took over, the Union's negotiator informally introduced himself to bargaining representatives of the new owners and expressed the hope that the deep cuts agreed to by the parties at the Shelby plant would not be sought at the Lowville plant.
In addition to various informal telephone discussions, the parties conducted seven formal negotiating sessions in December 1986 and January 1987--on December 3 and 16, 1986, and January 6, 7, 8, 14, and 15, 1987. When the parties adjourned on January 15 with AMF's final wage offer on the table but with no agreement that further bargaining would take place, AMF sent the Union a telegram dated January 16 declaring an impasse:
EFFECTIVE AT MIDNIGHT TUESDAY, JANUARY 20 1987 THE FINAL OFFER WHICH WAS PRESENTED TO THE STEELWORKERS ON JANUARY 14 1987 EXPIRES. UNLESS THE UNION AGREES TO BREAK THE IMPASSE EXISTING BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND ACCEPT AMF'S FINAL CONTRACT PROPOSAL PRIOR TO MIDNIGHT JANUARY 20 1987 AMF BOWLING AT THAT TIME WILL IMPLEMENT THE WAGES AND BENEFITS PRESENTED ON JANUARY 14 1987.
On January 20, 1987, the Lowville employees voted unanimously to reject AMF's final offer, first made on January 14, and the next day AMF implemented that proposal.
The impasse declared by AMF was based on the parties' alleged inability to agree on any wage concessions, i.e. a reduction in the average wage rates. The positions taken by the parties throughout the negotiating sessions on this issue are essentially uncontroverted.
At the first session on December 3, the Union proposed a two-year agreement with 8% wage increases each year and increased benefits. AMF responded that it was a new and smaller company that needed to be more competitive and therefore would be seeking wage and benefit cuts. The Union countered by demanding that the company open its books if it was going to seek wage cuts. AMF explained that it was not claiming an inability to pay, which would have triggered the Union's right to review the books. Rather, the company claimed that the wages it was then paying were too high and had to be cut for the company to become competitive. At this session, the parties agreed to extend the existing collective bargaining agreement, which was set to expire on December 8, for an additional month until January 8, 1987, to allow additional time for bargaining.
At the next bargaining session on December 16, AMF presented the general proposal that had been agreed to at the Shelby plant, which involved a 24% wage reduction and a 14% cut in benefits. The Union responded that if the company wanted wage cuts, it would have to open its books and "prove" that it needed the wage cuts. AMF explained that it was not "pleading poverty," but rather was seeking to pay market-rate wages. The Union responded that it would reduce its proposal from an 8% increase the first year to a 6% increase and suggested that the parties consider profit sharing.
The third bargaining session took place on January 6, 1987, when the company repeated that it needed wage concessions, arguing that cuts had already been made elsewhere throughout the company. The Union responded that the Lowville plant should not be responsible for mismanagement in other parts of the company. The Union representative then added, The discussions then turned to non-economic proposals.
Bargaining resumed the next day on January 7, and the company presented its first specific wage proposal representing a weighted average wage rate of $6.72 per hour, which represented significant wage cuts. The Union responded that it would consider accepting some proposed benefit reductions if AMF would reconsider its demand for wage reductions. The Union indicated that it would agree to no less than a wage freeze for the first year of a new contract and an increase of 3% in the second year. When AMF repeated its need for wage concessions the Union reiterated that it would not accept anything below current wages in the first year. It also repeated its demand to see the company's books.
Bargaining continued at the session on January 8, during which the Union repeated that "wages would remain the same ... we are not addressing wage decreases." AMF nevertheless left the Union with a two-year proposal that included a weighted hourly wage of $7.10 per hour. The Union did not make a counterproposal; rather, its representative indicated that since the contract was ending that day, the Union would vote on what AMF had presented.
That evening, the Union voted unanimously to reject AMF's proposals, but they also voted against striking. Thereafter, the Union requested a further extension of the existing collective bargaining agreement, a request which AMF denied.
After a cooling-off period proposed by the federal mediator, bargaining resumed on January 14, 1987. At that meeting the Union stated that it Without any movement from the Union, AMF submitted its second increase and its last offer, increasing its weighted wage offering from $7.10 to $7.34 per hour with a 3% increase in the second year. The Union continued to state that a wage freeze with a 3% increase in the second year was the lowest it would go.
The last bargaining session before AMF declared an impasse was held on January 15, 1987. Before that meeting, the federal mediator privately advised AMF of his understanding that the Union had "a dollar to give." At the session on January 15, therefore, AMF sought to elicit that concession by asking whether there were any noneconomic concessions it could make in exchange for a wage cut. The meeting recessed without any agreement or movement on the wage concessions, and no future bargaining sessions were scheduled.
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