Carpinteria Lemon Ass'n v. National Labor Rel. Bd.
| Decision Date | 07 February 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 14823,14838-14840.,14824,14823 |
| Parties | CARPINTERIA LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. CARPINTERIA LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Respondent. SEABOARD LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. SEABOARD LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Respondent. OXNARD CITRUS ASSOCIATION et al., Petitioners, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. OXNARD CITRUS ASSOCIATION et al., Respondents. SOMIS LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. SOMIS LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Respondent. SANTA CLARA LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. SANTA CLARA LEMON ASSOCIATION, a corporation, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Ivan G. McDaniel, Kenneth N. Dellamater, Leon L. Gordon, Los Angeles, Cal., for petitioners.
Theophil C. Kammholz, Gen. Counsel, N. L. R. B., David P. Findling, Associate Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Norton J. Come, Duane Beeson, Attys., N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before HEALY and FEE, Circuit Judges, and SOLOMON, District Judge.
These five cases involve orders issued by the National Labor Relations Board against five associations of citrus fruit growers operating in the vicinity of Oxnard, California. In each case, the Board asks that we enforce its order and the association asks that we set it aside.
The facts and issues, with minor exceptions, are basically similar in all five cases. Each association was formed to process and pack citrus fruit grown by its members. In November, 1953, as the result of Board-conducted elections held pursuant to consent agreements, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Growers, Local Industrial Union No. 78, CIO, was chosen the bargaining agent for the employees in each association and was certified as such by the Board. Shortly thereafter, the union began negotiations with each association for a collective bargaining contract.
Early in 1954, the associations refused to negotiate further with the union on the ground that they had received petitions from their employees repudiating the union as their bargaining agent. In each case the petition requested the association to deal with an employee committee and not with the union. However, even prior thereto, negotiations had not been fruitful. In fact, negotiations had already been broken off by two of the associations because of disagreement with the union on the issue of union security. The union then filed unfair labor charges against the associations alleging, among other things, their refusal to bargain.
At the time the charges were filed, the Fruit and Vegetable Union was chartered as a local union by the national CIO. In the spring of 1954, the national CIO proposed to the membership of the Fruit and Vegetable Union that they change its status from a local union chartered by the national CIO to a local union chartered by the United Packinghouse Workers of America, a CIO affiliate.
A number of membership meetings were held in the area served by the union in California and Arizona. At the meeting held in the Oxnard area, approximately 150 members from these five associations voted unanimously in favor of the proposal. As a result of these meetings, the union dropped its direct connection with the CIO and became affiliated through the Packinghouse Workers. It surrendered its CIO charter and received a Packinghouse Workers charter, taking on the status and name of a Packinghouse Workers local.
The expiring union and the successor union then joined in requesting the Regional Director of the Board to change the certifications previously issued to reflect the new designation of the union. The Director granted the motion and amended the certificates accordingly.
Hearings on the unfair practice charges were held and the Board thereafter ordered the associations to bargain with the Packinghouse local. The associations contend that this ruling is unlawful because the Packinghouse local is a new and different union from the Fruit and Vegetable Union originally chosen as bargaining agent.
The right of a successor union to assume the status of certified bargaining agent held by its predecessor depends on a factual issue — is the new union a continuation of the old union under a new name or affiliation or is it a substantially different organization? National Labor Relations Board v. Harris-Woodson Co., 4 Cir., 179 F.2d 720; Continental Oil Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 10 Cir., 113 F.2d 473.
This factual issue was contested before the Trial Examiner who heard the charges against the associations. Although the Packinghouse Workers sent in a new financial administrator to replace the one previously furnished by the national CIO, the officers remained the same. There was no dilution of membership as a result of the change. Contracts concluded by the Fruit and Vegetable Union remained in effect except for the substitution of the union's new name. This testimony was not contradicted.
The Board adopted the Trial Examiner's finding that there was merely a change of name and affiliation. From our consideration of the record as a whole, we find that this determination is supported by substantial evidence. We are precluded by law from reexamining any Board finding of fact in an unfair labor practice case which is so supported. National Labor Relations Act, § 10(e), 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(e); Universal Camera Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456.
Each association objects to the Board's order that it bargain with the union on the additional ground that it was relieved of this duty when a majority of its employees repudiated the union. Some years ago the Board set up a working rule that in the absence of "unusual circumstances" an employer is required to bargain with the certified union for one year even though the union is repudiated within the year by a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit. This rule was adopted to give the elected union a fair chance to bargain and to minimize obstructionist tactics by employers. In the present cases the repudiations occurred within two to five months after the certifications, and the Board applied the one-year rule.
The same argument here advanced by the associations was considered and rejected in Brooks v. National Labor Relations Board, 348 U.S. 96, 75 S.Ct. 176, 99 L.Ed. 125. The Court there decided that the one-year rule was within the power of the Board to make and its application was a matter within the Board's discretion. We find that the Board in these cases did not abuse that discretion.
The associations next contend that the Board erred in finding that they were guilty of unfair labor practices by granting wage increases without consulting with the certified bargaining agent. Such unilateral increases violate an employer's duty to bargain with the certified union. May Department Stores Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 326 U.S. 376, 66 S.Ct. 203, 90 L.Ed. 145. The associations assert that this rule is not applicable to these cases because the union had already been repudiated by a majority of the employees in each plant. In view of our earlier conclusion that the repudiation petitions did not remove the associations' duty to bargain with the union, it follows that they were not justified in granting the wage increases without consulting with the union.
The Somis and Oxnard Associations contend that they were justified in granting unilateral wage increases on the additional ground that their negotiations had actually broken down. They assert that the resulting impass freed them from any duty to bargain with the union over wages.
After certification of the Fruit and Vegetable Union in November, 1953, Somis and Oxnard met with the union for collective bargaining. The discussions dealt primarily with union security. The union demanded a union shop and the associations insisted upon an open shop. When it became apparent that an agreement would not be reached on this issue, each association announced that further discussions would be useless and terminated the negotiations. They refused to resume negotiations even though the union offered to continue negotiations in other areas, such as wages, which had not yet been discussed. Written requests by the union failed to bring about a resumption of negotiations in spite of the fact that the union offered to consider compromising on its union shop demand if an otherwise satisfactory agreement could be reached.
The Board found that no impasse had arisen. The evidence strongly suggests that the associations...
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