National Labor Relations Board v. Financial Institution Employees of America, Local 1182, Chartered By United Food and Commercial Workers International Union National Bank v. Financial Institution Employees of America
| Decision Date | 26 February 1986 |
| Docket Number | 84-1509,Nos. 84-1493,SEATTLE-FIRST,AFL-CIO,s. 84-1493 |
| Citation | 89 L.Ed.2d 151,106 S.Ct. 1007,475 U.S. 192 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. FINANCIAL INSTITUTION EMPLOYEES OF AMERICA, LOCAL 1182, CHARTERED BY UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION,et al.NATIONAL BANK, Petitioner, v. FINANCIAL INSTITUTION EMPLOYEES OF AMERICA, etc., et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
In 1970, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) certified the Firstbank Independent Employees Association (Firstbank) as the collective-bargaining representative of a bargaining unit consisting of the employees of Seattle-First National Bank (SeaFirst), and successive collective-bargaining agreements were negotiated. In 1978, in an election in which only union members were allowed to vote, Firstbank voted to affiliate with an international union and changed its name to the Financial Institution Employees of America, Local 1182 (FIEA). FIEA then petitioned the Board to amend its certification to reflect this change. After initially granting the petition and holding that SeaFirst had committed an unfair labor practice by refusing to recognize the amended certification or to bargain with FIEA, the Board, on reconsideration, held that, because nonunion employees were not allowed to vote in the affiliation election, the election did not meet minimal "due process" standards and that therefore the affiliation was invalid. Accordingly, the Board dismissed FIEA's unfair labor practice charge and vacated the amended certification. The Court of Appeals granted FIEA's petition for review of the Board's decision and remanded the case, holding that the Board's requirement that nonunion employees be allowed to vote on affiliation questions was irrational and inconsistent with the National Labor Relations Act (Act).
Held: The Board exceeded its authority under the Act in requiring that nonunion employees be allowed to vote for affiliation before it would order the employer to bargain with the affiliated union. Pp. 198-209.
(a) Such requirement dramatically changes the scheme under which the Board's practice has been to grant an independent union's petition to amend the union's certification to reflect a name change resulting from affiliation with a national or international union if the Board found that union members had an adequate opportunity to vote on affiliation and that there was substantial "continuity" between the preaffiliation and postaffiliation union. Pp. 198-201.
(b) Under the Act, the certified union must be recognized as the exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the bargaining unit, and the Board cannot discontinue that recognition without determining that the affiliation of that union with another union raises a question of representation and, if so, conducting an election to decide whether the certified union is still the choice of a majority of the unit. Here, by refusing either to amend FIEA's certification or to order SeaFirst to bargain, the Board effectively circumvented the decertification procedures provided for by the Act. Moreover, the Board's requirement that non-union employees be allowed to vote in the affiliation election violated the policy Congress incorporated into the Act against outside interference in union decisionmaking. Pp. 201-204.
(c) Employees' dissatisfaction with representation is not a reason for requiring the union to allow nonunion employees to vote on union matters like affiliation. Rather, the Act allows union members to control the shape and direction of the union. Dissatisfaction with the decision union members make may be tested by a Board-conducted representation election only if it is unclear whether the recognized union retains majority support. Any distinction between affiliation and other changes in a union's organization and structure does not justify the Board's meddling in the union's internal affairs. Pp. 205-208.
(d) The Board's new rule contravenes the Act's assumption that stable bargaining relationships are best maintained by allowing an affiliated union to continue representing a bargaining unit unless the Board finds that the affiliation raises a question of representation. Such rule effectively gives the employer the power to veto an independent union's decision to affiliate, thereby allowing the employer to interfere directly with union decisionmaking that Congress intended to insulate from outside interference. Pp. 208-209.
752 F.2d 356 (CA 9 1984), affirmed and remanded.
Norton J. Come, Washington, D.C., for petitioner in No. 84-1493.
Mark A. Hutcheson, Seattle, Wash., for petitioner in No. 84-1509.
Laurence Gold, Washington, D.C., for respondents in both cases.
The question for decision in these cases is whether a rule of the National Labor Relations Board that requires that nonunion employees be permitted to vote in a certified union's decision whether to affiliate with another union is consistent with the National Labor Relations Act.
In 1970, the Board certified the Firstbank Independent Employees Association (Firstbank) as the collective-bargaining representative of a bargaining unit consisting of the employees of petitioner Seattle-First National Bank (SeaFirst). Firstbank and SeaFirst subsequently negotiated successive collective-bargaining agreements, the most recent of which expired in 1977. In 1978, Firstbank voted to affiliate with the Retail Clerks International Union, AFL-CIO. Under Firstbank's constitution, only union members in good standing could vote in the election. The union members voted in favor of affiliation by a margin of 1,206-774. Upon affiliation, Firstbank changed its name to the Financial Institution Employees of America, Local 1182 (FIEA), chartered by the Retail Clerks International Union, AFL-CIO. FIEA then petitioned the Board to amend its certification to reflect this change. SeaFirst challenged the petition, arguing that affiliation with the Retail Clerks had substantially changed the union, that nonunion employees should have been allowed to vote on whether to affiliate, and that the union had not followed its own constitution in establishing voter eligibility standards. The Board rejected these arguments and amended Firstbank's certification to name FIEA as the employees' bargaining representative. Seattle-First National Bank, 241 N.L.R.B. 751 (1979).1
SeaFirst refused to recognize the amended certification or to bargain with FIEA. The Board sustained FIEA's charges and held that SeaFirst had committed an unfair labor practice in violation of §§ 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1) and 158(a)(5), and ordered it to bargain.2 Seattle-First National Bank, 245 N.L.R.B. 700 (1979). SeaFirst petitioned the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for review of the Board's order, and the Board cross-applied for enforcement. Before the Court of Appeals rendered its decision, the Board moved for remand of the case to it, and the court granted the motion. Seattle-First National Bank v. NLRB, Nos. 79-7515, 80-7004 (June 27, 1980); see n. 4, infra.
On remand, the Board notified the parties of its decision on its own motion to reconsider its earlier decision. On reconsideration, the Board held that, because nonunion employees were not allowed to vote in the affiliation election, the election did not meet minimal "due process" standards, and therefore that the affiliation was invalid. Accordingly, the Board dismissed FIEA's unfair labor practice charge and vacated the amended certification. Seattle-First National Bank, 265 N.L.R.B. 426 (1982).
FIEA petitioned the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for review of the Board's decision. The Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, granted the petition and remanded the case. 752 F.2d 356 (1984). The court held that the Board's requirement that nonunion employees be allowed to vote on affiliation questions was irrational and inconsistent with the Act for three reasons. First, the Board's rule intruded upon the union's internal affairs here a totally unjustified intrusion because the Board had not determined that affiliation had substantially changed the union or eroded its majority support—and violated the "longstanding federal labor policy of avoiding unnecessary interference in internal union affairs." Id., at 362. Second, the Board's rule was "inconsistent with the strong national policy of maintaining stability in the bargaining representative." Id., at 364. Pursuant to that policy, Congress and the Board had restricted the opportunities for employers and employees to challenge a certified union's status as bargaining representative,3 and the Board's new rule did not further but breached the policy, since it effectively decertified the union without a Board determination that affiliation had undermined the union's majority support. Finally, the Board's rule was irrational, because the interests of nonunion employees were adequately protected under existing procedures, and because the Board's reasoning did not support the rule.
The holding of the Court of Appeals conflicts with contrary holdings of the Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh Circuits upholding the Board's rule. Local Union No. 4-14 v. NLRB, 721 F.2d 150, 152-153 (CA5 1983); United Retail Workers Union, Local 881 v. NLRB, 774 F.2d 752 (CA7 1985).4 We granted both petitions in this case to resolve the conflict. 471 U.S. 1098, 105 S.Ct. 2318, 85 L.Ed.2d 838 (1985). We affirm.
Section 7 of the Act guarantees employees the right "to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing," 29 U.S.C. § 157, and the Board is empowered to determine representation on petition of...
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