NLRB v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., Trans. & Axle Div., 18651.
| Decision Date | 29 May 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 18651.,18651. |
| Citation | 410 F.2d 953 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. ROCKWELL-STANDARD CORPORATION, TRANSMISSION AND AXLE DIVISION, FORGE DIVISION, Respondent, and International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, (UAW), AFL-CIO, Intervenor. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Leonard M. Wagman, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner, Arnold Ordman, Gen. Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Neal J. Conway, Atty., Washington, D. C., on brief.
Leonard L. Scheinholtz, Pittsburgh, Pa., for respondent, Jonathan L. Alder, Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, Pittsburgh, Pa., on brief.
Before PHILLIPS, EDWARDS* and PECK, Circuit Judges.
This case is before the Court on the National Labor Relations Board's petition for enforcement (pursuant to section 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq.) of its Order requiring the Respondent to furnish the Union with certain requested data.
The basic facts are not in dispute. Since 1953, Local 174 of the U.A.W. (hereinafter "Union") has been certified as the bargaining representative for the office and clerical employees at the Respondent's offices located at 100-400 Clark Street in Detroit, Michigan. The employees in the bargaining unit include generally stenographers, typists, file clerks, cost and accounting clerks, and service personnel such as receptionists, telephone and telegraph operators and mail clerks. Administrative employees such as department heads and supervisory employees and their assistants and secretaries are not members of the bargaining unit.
For a number of years prior to 1964, the only corporate divisions of the Respondent which were located at the Clark Street facilities were the Transmission and Axle Division and the Forge Division. In 1964 the Respondent organized a new corporate division called "Automotive Divisions Headquarters" (hereinafter "Automotive Divisions") to perform administrative functions for all of the Respondent's divisions in the automotive field. Automotive Divisions was located at the Clark Street offices until November of 1965, at which time it was moved to an office building located at Bagley and Clifford Avenues (Bagley Building) in downtown Detroit, a distance of some three and one-half miles from the Clark Street offices.
Prior to the move of Automotive Divisions from Clark Street to the Bagley Building, bargaining unit employees performed some work for Automotive Divisions. Dictaphone operators transcribed dictation, blueprint operators made blueprints from tracings, receptionists, and telephone operators and mail clerks provided services for all the divisions including Automotive Divisions. After the move to the Bagley Building, Respondent continued to have the Clark Street unit employees perform many of the clerical functions for Automotive Divisions. For example, dictated material recorded at the Bagley Building was transported to the Clark Street offices for transcription by bargaining unit employees. Tracings from the engineering department were similarly transported from the Bagley Building to the Clark Street offices to be made into blueprints by unit employees. However, the Respondent secured an outside contract service agency to provide service personnel such as receptionists, telephone operators and mail clerks at the Bagley Building. No unit employees were terminated because of the move of Automotive Divisions and no unit employees were moved from the Clark Street offices to the Bagley Building.
As early as March 1965, some six months before the move, during negotiations for a new two year contract, the Union expressed concern that the rumored move of Automotive Divisions from Clark Street to the Bagley Building would mean the loss of unit work. Because of this concern the Union proposed amendments to the contract. One such proposal was to make the Union the bargaining representative for all the office and clerical employees of the Respondent in the Detroit area. The Respondent rejected this proposal because it contemplated the inclusion of employees at Respondent's other long established plants in the Detroit area. Another proposal provided for rearrangement of "jurisdictional districts" within the unit if any of the offices were moved to a different location. The Respondent rejected this proposal also, stating that it did not wish to expand the scope of the bargaining unit beyond the Clark Street offices.
Approximately one month before the move, the Respondent notified the Union formally that Automotive Divisions would be moved from Clark Street to the Bagley Building, that none of the unit employees at Clark Street would be terminated or moved, that unit employees at Clark Street would continue to perform the same functions for Automotive Divisions, the work to be brought from the Bagley Building to the Clark Street offices. The notification further advised that the service jobs such as reception, telephone operation and mail service would be performed at the Bagley Building by contract service employees. Representatives of the Union met with the Respondent following this notification and expressed concern over "erosion" of the Clark Street bargaining unit. In addition to requests for other information, the Union requested, and was granted, a tour of the Bagley Building. During this tour the Respondent's spokesmen told the Union representatives that the service personnel were not Rockwell-Standard employees but were employees of an outside contract service agency.
In the weeks following the tour of the Bagley Building, the Union made requests of the Respondent for a list of the names, classification and summary of job descriptions of all the non-confidential employees at the Bagley Building. The Union also filed a grievance alleging that the use of outside contract service employees was a violation of the collective bargaining agreement. Respondent rejected the requests for information and the grievance for the reasons that the collective bargaining agreement applied only to the Clark Street offices, and that the contract service employees were not its employees.
On April 20, 1966, the Union attorney wrote a letter to Respondent requesting the names, classifications, wage rates and job descriptions of all non-confidential office and clerical employees, including outside contract service employees, who were employed at the Bagley Building. The Union stated in the letter that it needed the information to determine whether unit work had been transferred from the Clark Street offices to the Bagley Building, and to enable it to determine whether to file additional grievances, file Labor Board charges or to seek contract modifications. Respondent rejected the April 20th request for the same reasons that it rejected the previous requests.
It was on the basis of the Respondent's denial of the Union's request for information contained in the letter of April 20, 1966, that the General Counsel based the charges of violation of § 8(a) (5) and (1) of the Act.
The Trial Examiner found that the Union, by its letter of April 20, 1966, requested information relevant to issues about which the parties were obligated to bargain, and that the Respondent's refusal to supply the requested information was a violation of § 8(a) (5) and (1) of the Act. The Trial Examiner recommended that Respondent be ordered to provide the requested information. The Board adopted the findings, conclusions and recommended order of the Trial Examiner. In addition the Board ordered the posting of appropriate notices.1
Like the controlling facts, the basic principles of law to be applied are not here in dispute. An employer has a duty to provide, upon request, information relevant to bargainable issues. N. L. R. B. v. Truitt Mfg. Co., 351 U.S. 149, 153, 76...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Local 777, Democratic Union Organizing Committee, Seafarers Intern. Union of North America, AFL-CIO v. N.L.R.B.
...individuals outside the bargaining unit, that it was relevant to some bargainable issue, NLRB v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., Transmission & Axle Division, Forge Division, 410 F.2d 953 (6th Cir. 1969); Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. NLRB, 347 F.2d 61 (3d Cir. 1965). The Union made no such showing.In a......
-
Conn. Ironworkers Emp'rs Ass'n, Inc. v. New Eng. Reg'l Council of Carpenters, 16-485-cv
...(3d Cir. 1979) ("[W]ork preservation is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining."); N.L.R.B. v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., Transmission & Axle Div., Forge Div., 410 F.2d 953, 957 (6th Cir. 1969) ("The preservation or diversion of unit work is a subject of mandatory bargaining under the A......
-
Soule Glass and Glazing Co. v. N.L.R.B., 79-1640
...constitutes a "term (or) condition of employment" subject to mandatory bargaining under § 8(d) of the Act. NLRB v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., 410 F.2d 953, 957 (6th Cir. 1969). The employer must bargain with respect to the decision to remove work from bargaining unit employees, not merely its......
-
General Motors Corp., Inc. v. N.L.R.B.
...385 U.S. at 437, 87 S.Ct. at 568; NLRB v. Truitt Mfg. Co., supra, 351 U.S. at 153, 76 S.Ct. at 756. See also: NLRB v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., 410 F.2d 953, 957 (6th Cir.1969). Particular information is subject to disclosure where the Board, applying a "discovery type standard" rather than ......