SHARP/NLRB v. Koronis Parts, Inc.

• Decision Date: 17 June 1996
• Docket Number: Civil No. 6-96-111.
• Citation: 927 F. Supp. 1208
• Parties: Ronald M. SHARP, Regional Director of the Eighteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on Behalf of the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. KORONIS PARTS, INC., Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

927 F. Supp. 1208

Ronald M. SHARP, Regional Director of the Eighteenth Region of the National Labor Relations Board, for and on Behalf of the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. KORONIS PARTS, INC., Respondent.

Civil No. 6-96-111.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Sixth Division.

June 17, 1996.

National Labor Relations Board by Florence I. Brammer, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Petitioner.

Law Offices of Martin L. Garden by Steven C. Miller, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Respondent.

ORDER

ALSOP, Senior District Judge.

The above-entitled matter comes before the Court upon Petitioner's motion for a temporary injunction under section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(j) ("section 10(j)") (docket no. 1). Petitioner ("NLRB") asks the Court to enjoin Respondent Koronis Parts, Inc. ("Koronis") from engaging in certain practices that the NLRB alleges to be in violation of employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 158(a)(1) and (3) ("the NLRA"). The NLRB also asks the Court to order Koronis to take certain affirmative action with respect to employees allegedly disciplined and terminated in violation of the act. A hearing on the amended and consolidated Complaint was held before the Honorable William J. Pannier, III, Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB ("ALJ") on April 17, 1996 and consecutive days thereafter. The transcript from the hearing has been made a part of the record. A hearing before this Court was conducted prior to oral argument to hear testimony from Koronis' President Ed Webb ("Webb") about the hardship to Koronis if the Court granted the requested injunctive relief.

Koronis is a manufacturer of aftermarket replacement snowmobile parts and accessories with operations in Paynesville, Minnesota. The company is co-owned by Webb and his wife and in the fall of 1995 employed approximately 50 people in its Paynesville operations. The dispute arises out of an organizing campaign which Koronis employees began in September 1995. The NLRB alleges that after the campaign was underway Koronis took various actions to discourage employees from supporting the union in violation of the NLRA. In particular, the NLRB alleges that employees instrumental in the organizing campaign were terminated because of their union activities.

In a letter dated September 7, 1995 Teamsters Local 970 ("Teamsters") notified Webb that the Teamsters had begun an organizing campaign at Koronis. The letter identified Bill Bertram, a Koronis employee, as a member of the organizing committee. A second letter from the Teamsters dated September 15, 1995 named six additional employees on the organizing committee including Alan Remmel and Robert Kessler (a/k/a/ "Robert Kesoler"). Koronis terminated Remmel November 21, 1995 and Bill Bertram December 19, 1995. According to Koronis the terminations were based upon factors not related to Remmel and Bertram's union activities. Kessler left Koronis Nov. 27, 1995 purportedly to take up a new position. A fourth person, Tamara Sondrol, who was employed by a temporary agency and placed at Koronis in mid-September, allegedly could not continue her placement at Koronis and was not hired into a permanent position because she expressed support for the union.

The Teamsters filed charges with the NLRB on October 4, 1995 and on several occasions thereafter alleging that Koronis had engaged in unfair labor practices. After a field investigation in which both parties had an opportunity to submit evidence upon the charges, the NLRB issued a complaint and the matter was brought before the ALJ. Pending a decision of the ALJ, the NLRB asks this Court for an injunction reinstating Bertram, Remmel and Sondrol and expunging disciplinary warnings and other records from their personnel files and those of other employees. In addition it seeks an injunction prohibiting Koronis from further acts in violation of the NLRA.

I. ISSUE

The NLRB argues that in considering this petition for injunctive relief under section 10(j) the Court should apply a two-step analysis and determine: (1) whether there is reasonable cause to believe that an unfair labor practice has occurred; and (2) whether equitable relief is "just and proper". Koronis disagrees that the two-step analysis is appropriate and argues that traditional equitable analysis should be employed. According to Koronis such analysis requires the Court to employ the four-step analysis laid down in Dataphase Systems, Inc. v. CL Systems, 640 F.2d 109, 113 (8th Cir.1981).

Both parties rely upon Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company v. Meter, 385 F.2d 265 (8th Cir.1967) to support their interpretation of what is the appropriate legal standard. In Minnesota Mining the Eighth Circuit held:

The district judge's discretion in granting temporary relief under Section 10(j) cannot be activated and motivated solely by a finding of `reasonable cause' to believe that a violation of the Act has occurred. More is required to guide his permissive range of discretion. Section 10(j) is reserved for a more serious and extraordinary set of circumstances where the unfair labor practices, unless contained, would have an adverse and deleterious effect on the rights of the aggrieved party which could not be remedied through the normal Board channels.

385 F.2d at 272. The NLRB urges the Court to find that the language in Meter indicates that the traditional equitable criteria are not to be considered when determining whether to grant temporary relief under 10(j). In support of its position the NLRB cites two Eighth Circuit cases, both involving an injunction brought under section 10(l) of the NLRA.¹Solien v. United Steelworkers of America, 593 F.2d 82, 87 (8th Cir.1979) cert. denied, United Steelworkers of America v. Solien, 444 U.S. 828, 100 S.Ct. 54, 62 L.Ed.2d 36 (1979) and Hendrix v. Operating Engineers, Local 571, 592 F.2d 437, 441-43 (8th Cir.1979). Koronis urges the Court to recognize that a different standard applies in 10(j) cases than in 10(l) cases and to follow the approach of at least three other circuits and employ traditional equitable principles when determining whether to grant relief under 10(j).²See Pye v. Sullivan Bros. Printers, Inc., 38 F.3d 58, 63 (1st Cir.1994); Miller v. California Pacific Medical Center, 19 F.3d 449, 451-52 (9th Cir.1994); Kinney v. Pioneer Press, 881 F.2d 485, 490 (7th Cir. 1989). Then if traditional equitable principles are to be used, Koronis argues that Dataphase provides the test applied in the Eighth Circuit for determining whether an injunction should issue. Under Dataphase the Court considers: (1) the threat of irreparable harm; (2) the balance between the harm to the movant and the injury to the other party if the injunction issues; (3) the probability that petitioner will succeed on the merits; and (4) the public interest. Id. at 114.

Examining the requirements for issuing an injunction under Minnesota Mining, the Court finds a close similarity with traditional equitable principles and the four factors described in Dataphase. See Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Bair, 957 F.2d 599, 603 n. 4 (8th Cir.1992). The Court acknowledges that the Eighth Circuit has never explicitly employed traditional equitable analysis in a section 10(j) case, however as the Court noted in Burlington, Minnesota Mining did consider traditional equitable principles such as irreparable harm in determining whether injunctive relief was "just and proper". Since Minnesota Mining at least three other Circuits have interpreted "just and proper" to mean a consideration of traditional equitable principles. Sullivan Bros., 38 F.3d at 63; Miller, 19 F.3d at 451-52; Kinney, 881 F.2d at 490. For these reasons the Court will employ the traditional equitable analysis in reviewing this petition for an injunction and determine whether petitioner satisfies the four-part test in Dataphase.

II. Dataphase Analysis

The first issue is whether the NLRB has shown a probability of success on the merits. The NLRB alleges that Koronis has acted through interrogations coercion, threats, interference, surveillance, discriminatory discipline and retaliatory termination in violation of 29 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 158. 29 U.S.C. § 157 guarantees employees the right to self-organization. 29 U.S.C. § 158 provides that it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of employees' rights to self-organize. To establish that Koronis has interfered with employees' exercise of their rights, its must be shown that its conduct "reasonably tends to interfere" with the employees' exercise of their section 7 rights. See Mississippi Transport, Inc. v. NLRB, 33 F.3d 972 (8th Cir.1994) (citations omitted). The NLRB points to Koronis' conduct towards several employees who were active in the organizing campaign as evidence that Koronis violated the NLRA. In its defense Koronis explains that in each case its actions were legitimate business decisions not related to any protected activity and not in violation of the NLRA.

Remmel is one of the employees on the organizing committee who the NLRB claims was disciplined and ultimately terminated in violation of the NLRA. As evidence that Remmel was disciplined for engaging in a protected activity the NLRB cites a letter to Remmel from Bruce Vanderpool, Koronis' Operation and Sales Manager, dated October 16, 1995 which expressed Vanderpool's concern for discussions he heard Remmel had had with other Koronis employees about wages. (General Council Exhibits ("GC Ex.") 27). The letter admonished Remmel that wages was not a subject for discussion between employees. It related an offer to Remmel from Webb to take "a day off with pay to look for another job that meets your goals." Id. On November 27, 1995 Remmel was terminated. According to Koronis he was terminated pursuant to an agreement made a year earlier which provided that his...