Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. v. N.L.R.B.
| Citation | 877 F.2d 180 |
| Decision Date | 05 June 1989 |
| Docket Number | 962,D,Nos. 843,s. 843 |
| Parties | 131 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2732, 58 USLW 2043, 112 Lab.Cas. P 11,322 BRIDGEPORT FITTINGS, INCORPORATED, Petitioner, Cross-Respondent, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Cross-Petitioner. ockets 88-4142, 88-4158. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Johnna G. Torsone, New York City (Lucinda M. Cardinal, Parker, Chapin, Flattau & Klimpl, New York City, of counsel), for petitioner, cross-respondent.
Steven B. Goldstein, Atty. N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C. (William R. Stewart, Deputy Asst. Gen. Counsel, Rosemary M. Collyer, Gen. Counsel, John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy Gen. Counsel, Robert E. Allen, Associate Gen. Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel, N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C., of counsel), for respondent, cross-petitioner.
Before PIERCE and ALTIMARI, Circuit Judges, and KELLEHER, District Judge. *
Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. ("the Company") petitions for review of a decision and order of the National Labor Relations Board ("the Board") which held that the Company violated Secs. 8(a)(1) and (a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act ("the Act"), 29 U.S.C. Secs. 158(a)(1), 158(a)(5) (1982), by refusing to bargain with the Bridgeport Fittings Employees Association ("the BFEA"), a labor organization which the Board certified as the collective bargaining representative of a group of the Company's employees. The Board petitions for enforcement of its order directing the Company to bargain with the BFEA upon request.
We conclude that none of the Company's numerous challenges to the Board's certification of the BFEA establishes that the Board abused its discretion during the representation proceeding. Hence, we deny
the petition for review and enforce the order.
The Company, a Connecticut corporation, manufactures electrical fittings at its plant in Stratford, Connecticut. For approximately forty-seven years, until the events at issue, Local 2015 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO ("the IBEW") served as the collective bargaining representative of a group of employees at the Company's plant. On February 21, 1984, an employee of the Company, one Derwin Gonzalez, filed a petition with the Board seeking to have the IBEW decertified. Gonzalez was an in-plant organizer for Local 1040 of the Brewery and Soft Drink Workers, Liquor Drivers, and New and Used Car Workers ("Local 1040"), an organization affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("the Teamsters"). Two days after Gonzalez filed his petition, Local 1040 filed a petition for certification as the representative of the Company's production and maintenance workers.
Shortly after these petitions were filed, the employees of the Company who constituted Local 1040's in-plant organizing committee were informed that, because of a "no-raid" pact between the Teamsters and the IBEW, Local 1040 would be withdrawing its petition. These employees then formed the BFEA. Following its formation, the BFEA admitted employees to membership, collected voluntary contributions, conducted meetings at which officers were elected, and established a bank account.
After a hearing, in which the BFEA intervened, the Acting Regional Director of Region One of the Board ("the Director") issued a decision dated July 3, 1984, in which he granted Local 1040's request to withdraw its petition and, despite the Company's and the IBEW's objections, held that the BFEA was eligible to appear on a representation election ballot. The Director ordered that an election be held to determine whether the members of the bargaining unit wished to be represented by the IBEW, the BFEA, or neither organization.
On July 24, 1984, the Company filed with the Board a request for review of the Director's decision, arguing that the BFEA was no more than a "front" for the Teamsters and therefore should be barred from the election. In its request, the Company alleged that it had newly discovered evidence that, at a meeting of the BFEA in June 1984 ("the June meeting"), Gonzalez, who had been elected vice-president of the BFEA, announced that if the BFEA won the election it would cede its certification to Local 1040.
On August 1, 1984, the election was held and, by order of the Board, the ballots were impounded. On August 3, 1984, the Board granted the Company's request for review "solely with respect to the alleged 'newly discovered' evidence arising out of [the June] meeting," remanded for a further hearing on this issue, and denied the request "in all other respects."
In response to the Board's remand, the Director conducted another hearing ("the reopened hearing"), during which the Company was given an ample opportunity to present evidence that the BFEA was a front for the Teamsters. The Director then issued a supplemental decision, dated October 26, 1984, affirming his original decision. In the supplemental decision, the Director wrote that the evidence adduced at the reopened hearing was insufficient to support a finding that the BFEA intended, if it won the election, to cede its certification to Local 1040.
On January 15, 1985, the election ballots were counted. The tally showed that 210 of the approximately 235 eligible employees cast valid votes. Of these 210 valid votes, 138 were in favor of the BFEA, 66 were in favor of the IBEW and 6 favored not having either organization as the bargaining representative. On January 21, 1985, the Company filed objections to the conduct of the election and argued that the election results must be set aside on the grounds, inter alia, that confusion and fear tainted the election process; that members of the BFEA disclaimed the After an investigation into the Company's and the IBEW's objections, the Director issued a second supplemental decision dated May 17, 1985. In the decision, he considered all of the objections and, finding them to be without merit, certified the BFEA as the employees' representative. The Company filed numerous exceptions to the Director's second supplemental decision and both the Company and the IBEW requested a review by the Board.
BFEA's interest in representing the employees; and that the BFEA was merely a front for Local 1040. The IBEW also filed objections.
On October 21, 1985, the Board denied these requests, holding that they raised no substantial issues warranting review. Chairman Dotson dissented from this denial, on the ground that the ballot used in the election was defective. On November 1, 1985, the Company filed a motion for reconsideration. Well over two years later, in a decision dated March 23, 1988, the Board denied the motion for reconsideration, holding that the ballot used in the election was not so defective as to warrant overturning the election.
While the motion for reconsideration was pending, the BFEA, on or about April 2, 1986, requested that the Company bargain with it. The Company refused to bargain and continues to refuse to bargain. In a complaint dated June 16, 1986, the General Counsel of the Board charged that the Company's refusal to bargain constituted an unfair labor practice under the Act.
After the Board issued its denial of the Company's motion for reconsideration, the General Counsel moved for summary judgment on the charge against the Company. In a decision and order dated October 13, 1988, the Board granted the motion for summary judgment, held that the Company violated Secs. 8(a)(1) and (a)(5) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 158(a)(1) and 158(a)(5), and ordered the Company to bargain with the BFEA upon request. The Company then petitioned this Court for review of the Board's decision and order, and the Board cross-petitioned for enforcement.
The Company does not dispute that it has refused to bargain with the BFEA. Nor does it dispute that an employer commits an unfair labor practice when it refuses to bargain with a union which has been properly certified as the representative of a group of the employer's employees. Rather, the Company disputes the Board's conclusion that the certification was proper.
Before examining the numerous grounds on which the Company challenges the representation proceeding, we note that in reviewing such a proceeding we ordinarily defer to the expertise and discretion of the Board. Amalgamated Serv. & Allied Indus. Joint Bd. v. NLRB, 815 F.2d 225, 227 (2d Cir.1987); NLRB v. Eastern Conn. Health Servs., Inc., 815 F.2d 517, 518 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 140, 98 L.Ed.2d 97 (1987). Indeed, Judge Friendly wrote that, "[t]he conduct of representation elections is the very archetype of a purely administrative function, with no quasi about it, concerning which courts should not interfere save for the most glaring discrimination or abuse." NLRB v. Olson Bodies, Inc., 420 F.2d 1187, 1189 (2d Cir.1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 954, 91 S.Ct. 966, 28 L.Ed.2d 237 (1971).
On December 28, 1984, approximately six months after the election, but before the certification of the BFEA, the office of Subregion 39 of the Board in Hartford, Connecticut received a written communication ("the petition"), signed by many of the Company's employees, which in relevant part read as follows:
The undersigned employees of Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. hereby petition the Bridgeport Fittings Employee Association ("BFEA") to take the following action:
1. Notify immediately in writing Subregion 39 of the National Labor Relations Board that the Bridgeport Fittings Employee Association disclaims and waives any and all interests in representing, and any right to represent, any Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. employees, including those The lawyer who forwarded the petition to the Board stated that he believed all those who signed it were members of the BFEA. In his second supplemental decision, the Director held that the petition did not prevent him from certifying the...
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