N.L.R.B. v. Springfield Hosp.
| Citation | 899 F.2d 1305 |
| Decision Date | 26 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | AFL-CI,No. 177,D,I,177 |
| Parties | 133 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3079, 114 Lab.Cas. P 12,053 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. SPRINGFIELD HOSPITAL, Respondent, New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, NUHHCE,ntervener. ocket 89-4055. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Steven Goldstein, N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C. (Linda Dreeben, Supervisory Atty., Joseph E. Desio, Acting General Counsel, Robert E. Allen, Associate General Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate General Counsel, N.L.R.B., of counsel), for petitioner.
Brian E. Hayes, Springfield, Mass. (Ralph F. Abbott, James M. Trono, Skoler, Abbott, Hayes and Presser, of counsel), for respondent.
John M. Creane, Milford, Conn., for intervener.
Before OAKES, Chief Judge, LUMBARD and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.
The National Labor Relations Board (the "Board") petitions pursuant to Sec. 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act (the "Act"), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 160(e) (1982), for enforcement of two orders requiring the Springfield Hospital Corp. (the "Hospital"), inter alia, to bargain with the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFL-CIO (the "Union"), as the representative of its technical employees. The Hospital concedes that it has refused to bargain but asserts: that the pre-election arrests of four pro-Union employees necessitates reversal of the election results; that the election was not held in an appropriate unit; and that remand to the Board is appropriate since the members of the certified unit were not given an opportunity to vote in a recent union affiliation election. We reject these contentions and grant the petition.
In October 1981, the Union filed a petition seeking recognition as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the On January 7, 1982, after hearings, the Board's Acting Regional Director ordered elections in a technical unit and a service and maintenance unit. While the parties had stipulated that the Hospital's six medical laboratory technicians should be included in the technical unit, the Regional Director determined that three medical technologists and two laboratory section heads were professional employees and thus not properly included in the unit. Subsequently, the Board denied the Hospital's request for review of the Regional Director's decision.
Hospital's technical and service and maintenance employees.
The election was held on February 4, 1982. After four challenged ballots were counted, the Union narrowly won the technical unit election and overwhelmingly lost the service and maintenance unit election.
Both sides filed objections, and, on June 19, 1985, an administrative law judge ("ALJ") found that the Hospital had committed numerous unfair labor practices in violation of sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 158(a)(1), (3) (1982). The ALJ recommended (1) that the Hospital be required to take affirmative action to remedy the effects of several of these unfair labor practices; (2) that the Union's objections to the service and maintenance unit election be sustained; (3) that the Hospital's objections to the technical unit election be overruled; and (4) that the Union be certified as the collective bargaining representative of the technical unit.
The Hospital and the Union each filed exceptions to the ALJ's decision, and, on September 30, 1986, the Board, with minor modifications not relevant herein, affirmed the ALJ's decision. The Board adopted the recommended order, as modified, and certified the Union as the collective bargaining representative of the technical unit. 281 N.L.R.B. No. 76 (1986).
Thereafter, the Hospital refused to bargain with the Union and refused to supply requested information. The Union filed an unfair labor practice charge, and the Board's General Counsel issued a complaint against the Hospital alleging violations of sections 8(a)(5) and 8(a)(1) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 158(a)(5), (1) (1982). On September 30, 1987, the Board rejected the Hospital's defenses and granted the General Counsel's motion for summary judgment. 286 N.L.R.B. No. 65 (1987). The Board then filed the present application seeking enforcement of its orders.
The Hospital does not contest the majority of the unfair labor practices found by the Board; the principal issue herein turns on the arrests of four pro-Union employees on February 1, 1982 which arrests, the Hospital contends, mandate sustaining its objections to the technical unit election. 1
The ALJ made detailed findings as set forth hereinbelow. Over the weekend of January 30-31, 1982, the Union mobilized off-duty employees who entered the hospital to participate in meetings relating to the impending election and to solicit support. In preparation for this Union activity, several of the Hospital's supervisors returned there over the weekend to insure that the off-duty employees did not interfere with the Hospital's operations. These supervisors testified before the ALJ that the off-duty employees walked through the corridors in groups as large as six and disrupted the Hospital's operations on several occasions during the weekend.
However, at a meeting held on Monday, February 1, 1982, the supervisors reported to Eric Rieseberg, the Hospital's Administrator, that no significant incidents had occurred during that weekend; further, no disciplinary proceedings arose out of the events of January 30-31. With respect to various alleged incidents, the ALJ either (1) According to the ALJ's findings, on February 1, 1982, off-duty employees continued soliciting support for the Union and attempting to participate in meetings between individual supervisors and individual on-duty employees. Early that afternoon, approximately fifteen pro-Union, off-duty employees learned that the Hospital's Support Services Director, Peter Hofstetter, was holding an election-related meeting in the housekeeping department--located in the basement of the hospital building, away from patient care areas. The off-duty employees went to the housekeeping department and, due to the noise generated when they began gathering outside the meeting, Hofstetter directed a supervisor, Steven Parker, to close the door.
rejected the supervisors' testimony; (2) found that the incidents had not interfered with the operations of the Hospital; or (3) determined that Rieseberg had not been informed of the incidents.
After the door was closed, one of the off-duty employees, Simone Murray, knocked on the door and she and another off-duty employee, Beverly Camire, asked if they could attend the meeting. 2 When Hofstetter responded that they could not, Murray asked two of the employees attending the meeting whether they were okay and whether they were being held against their will. After Murray was assured that everything was alright, the door was closed and the meeting continued.
Subsequently, according to the ALJ, when Supervisor Parker requested that they leave the immediate vicinity of the meeting, the off-duty employees moved down the hallway but remained, quietly, near the housekeeping area in order to be available to answer any questions which the employees attending the meeting might have. Director Hofstetter continued the meeting, unaffected by the off-duty employees in the hallway.
In the meantime, Administrator Rieseberg arrived in the housekeeping area and attempted to get the off-duty employees to leave the corridor. He informed them that they were in an unauthorized area 3 and that they were disrupting the Hospital's operations and its ability to meet its patients' needs. The off-duty employees refused to comply with Rieseberg's request that they leave, whereupon he returned to his office.
When the meeting ended, there were several brief conversations between the on-duty employees leaving the meeting and the off-duty employees who had waited outside. Upon learning of these conversations, Rieseberg sent a personnel assistant, Susan Jacques, to the basement with instructions to order the off-duty employees to leave the housekeeping area. Subsequently, Jacques gave a "second verbal warning" to an off-duty employee who was engaged in union activity.
Jacques reported this encounter to Administrator Rieseberg who, after consulting the Hospital's attorneys, called the police. Rieseberg told Police Chief Herdt that approximately fifteen off-duty employees were "roaming" in non-designated areas of the hospital and that one had distributed leaflets in the intensive care unit. Rieseberg, expressing concern that the off-duty employees were disturbing visitors and disrupting the quality of patient care Herdt dispatched Lieutenant Chadbourne and Investigator Estey to the hospital premises. When they arrived, Director Hofstetter informed Chadbourne that twelve to fourteen off-duty employees were roaming through the building; that these employees had not limited themselves to the areas in which they were permitted to be, see supra footnote 3; and that they had refused requests to leave.
requested that the police evacuate and, if necessary, arrest the off-duty employees.
Lt. Chadbourne first encountered four off-duty employees in the lobby and requested that they leave the premises. When they refused, Chadbourne called State's Attorney Sheehan and informed him that the Hospital had complained that the off-duty employees were roaming through the premises. Sheehan told Chadbourne to issue citations for trespassing if the off-duty employees remained on the premises after being asked to leave.
Later, Lt. Chadbourne saw five off-duty employees in the discharge area and asked them to leave the premises. He told them that he had been informed that they had been in patient care areas and had been disorderly and warned that if they refused to leave...
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