Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. N.L.R.B., GEORGIA-PACIFIC
| Decision Date | 29 December 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-1751,GEORGIA-PACIFIC,No. 7,I,7,88-1751 |
| Citation | 892 F.2d 130 |
| Parties | 133 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2326, 282 U.S.App.D.C. 114, 113 Lab.Cas. P 11,704 CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent, Local Unionnternational Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, Intervenor. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Bruce M. Cross, Seattle, Wash., for petitioner.
David A. Fleischer, Atty., N.L.R.B., with whom Robert E. Allen, Associate Gen. Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate Gen. Counsel and Howard E. Perlstein, Atty., N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C., were on the brief for respondent.
Richard S. Zuckerman, Washington, D.C., for intervenor.
Before WALD, Chief Judge, and EDWARDS and D.H. GINSBURG, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed Per Curiam.
This appeal is from the National Labor Relations Board's ("NLRB" or "Board") ruling that it was not "coerc[ive]," within the meaning of § 8(b)(4)(D) of the National Labor Relations Act ("Act"), for a union to file, pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, grievances against an employer for money payments in lieu of work performed by members of another union which the grievant claimed should have been assigned to it under the contract, so long as the Board had not awarded that work to the other union in a proceeding under § 10(k) of the Act. We hold that the Board's ruling was a reasonable interpretation of the Act in light of the facts, and accordingly deny the petition for review.
The facts are essentially undisputed. The Georgia-Pacific Corporation ("Georgia-Pacific"), petitioner, manufactures chemicals at its plant in Bellingham, Washington. In its manufacture of chlorine, the company uses large quantities of salt. Salt arrives by ship or barge at a dock owned by the Port of Bellingham. Workers unload the salt from the ship or barge, and place it in a hopper. Conveyor belts then bring the salt to an inland "salt pad" near the manufacturing facility. Prior to 1981, a moving "shuttle conveyor" ensured that the salt spread out evenly across the salt pad and did not pile up during the unloading process. Starting in September of 1981, however, Georgia-Pacific discontinued use of the shuttle conveyer. Instead, workers using bulldozers now keep the salt spread evenly about the salt pad during the unloading process.
The workers who drive the bulldozers are employed by Georgia-Pacific and are represented by the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers ("AWPPW"). The dock workers who first unload the salt are employed by the Bellingham Stevedoring Company ("Bellingham"), and are represented by the International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union ("ILWU"). Bellingham is a member of the Pacific Maritime Association ("PMA"), a multi-employer group that bargains with the ILWU. The collective bargaining agreement between the PMA and the ILWU is known as the Pacific Coast Longshore Contract Document ("PCLCD").
When bulldozers were first used to spread salt during the unloading process the ILWU claimed the right under the PCLCD to drive the bulldozers. It filed a grievance, claiming that Bellingham was liable to it for "time-in-lieu payments": money payments in lieu of the work that Bellingham had allegedly promised to obtain for union members. The AWPPW threatened to strike if the work was assigned to the ILWU. Georgia-Pacific claimed that the unions had violated § 8(b)(4)(D) of the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits "coerc[ing]" any person engaged in commerce, where an object thereof is "forcing or requiring any employer to assign particular work to employees in a particular labor organization ... rather than to employees in another labor organization ... unless such employer is failing to conform to an order or certification of the Board." 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(D).
Pursuant to § 10(k) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(k), the Board held a proceeding to resolve the underlying jurisdictional dispute between the two unions. While that proceeding was pending, an arbitrator ruled in favor of the ILWU on its grievance. The Board subsequently awarded the disputed work to the AWPPW.
Following the Board's § 10(k) decision, the ILWU continued to submit grievances claiming payment in lieu of the work. The Board later found that the ILWU had violated § 8(b)(4)(D) by failing to comply with the § 10(k) award, but also found that the grievances filed prior to the issuance of the award did not violate the Act. Both the ILWU and Georgia-Pacific appealed to this court, but as the union subsequently dismissed its appeal all that remains is Georgia-Pacific's challenge to the Board's ruling on the grievances filed prior to the issuance of the § 10(k) award.
National labor policy favors the private settlement of jurisdictional disputes between two unions. Carey v. Westinghouse Corp., 375 U.S. 261, 264-66, 84 S.Ct. 401, 405-06, 11 L.Ed.2d 320 (1964). In Carey, the Supreme Court emphasized that grievance arbitration plays an important role in the private settlement process. Indeed, the Court specifically concluded that " § 10(k) not only tolerates but actively encourages voluntary settlements of work assignment controversies between unions," id. at 266, 84 S.Ct. at 406, and that "grievance procedures pursued to arbitration further the policies of the Act," id. We held in ILWU v. NLRB (Sea-Land), 884 F.2d 1407 (D.C.Cir.1989), that the concept of coercion "is nonspecific, indeed vague," id. at 1413 (internal quotation omitted), and that we must therefore defer to the Board's interpretation if it is reasonable. Carey's specific approval of grievance arbitration as a means of settling...
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