St. Jude Indus. Park Bd. v. N.L.R.B.
| Decision Date | 24 April 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-1489,84-1489 |
| Citation | 760 F.2d 223 |
| Parties | 119 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2144, 102 Lab.Cas. P 11,458, 103 Lab.Cas. P 11,518 ST. JUDE INDUSTRIAL PARK BOARD, Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Gerald Tockman, St. Louis, Mo., for petitioner.
Francis H. O'Connell, NLRB, for respondent.
Before HEANEY, BRIGHT and ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.
St. Jude Industrial Park Board (Park Board) petitions this Court to review a final decision and order of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the NLRB cross-petitions for enforcement of its decision and order. The issue on appeal is whether the Park Board is a "political subdivision" of a state under section 2(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act) and thus exempt from the jurisdiction of the NLRB. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the NLRB.
The City of New Madrid, Missouri, created the St. Jude Industrial Park in 1968. The City entered into an agreement with Noranda Aluminum, Inc. (Noranda), a manufacturing concern, agreeing to raise the initial funds for the land and facilities of the park through an $85 million industrial revenue bond issue backed by Noranda. Noranda agreed to lease the land with the option to purchase it from the City upon the retirement of the bonds for the nominal sum of $10. Noranda also has the option to purchase any additional land at its cost to the City. The City entered into a similar agreement with Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. Associated Electric backed a $98 million revenue bond issue by the City, and built an electrical power plant in the industrial park. The City also received a $2,929,000 grant for the park from the Economic Development Administration.
No City funds were used to acquire or maintain the industrial park. The funds from the bond issues and Noranda's lease payments are placed into a separate account. Maintenance costs are assessed to Noranda and Associated Electric based on acreage (Noranda pays sixty-eight percent of the maintenance costs; Associated Electric pays thirty-two percent). Water treatment charges are assessed on the basis of use (Noranda pays twenty-one percent of the water treatment costs; Associated Electric pays seventy-nine percent).
Noranda and the City created the St. Jude Industrial Park Board by a declaration on November 2, 1970. The City passed an ordinance ratifying this declaration on January 18, 1971. The Park Board is to manage the park, providing maintenance and improvements to common areas as it sees fit. The Park Board has six members: three are appointed by the Mayor of New Madrid, and three are appointed by Noranda from its staff. The agreement provides that Noranda selects one of its Park Board members to be the park manager, and another to be assistant park manager. 1
The City has no power under this agreement to remove Noranda's appointees. According to the record, the Park Board meets infrequently; it has held only two formal meetings since 1972. 2 Consequently, Noranda and its staff control all Park Board decisions regarding budget, purchases, services and billings to tenants, and labor relations.
Noranda controls all decisions regarding hiring, firing, wages, conditions of employment, and assignment and direction of work for the park employees. The park employees are directly supervised by a consultant to the Park Board. The consultant reports directly to the park's assistant manager, who is also Noranda's manager of planning and development. The record further indicates that park employees perform work directly for Noranda at Noranda's facilities.
Noranda pays all wages and benefits for the Park Board employees out of income from the park assessments. Noranda sets the wage rates for park employees; park employees receive higher wages than comparable City employees. The Park Board employees have a health, welfare, and retirement plan which is essentially the same plan provided by the City to its employees.
The United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO (Union), won a representation election for Park Board employees on June 24, 1983. 3 The NLRB's Regional Director certified the Union as the employees' exclusive bargaining representative on July 12, 1983. On July 21, 1983, the Union filed unfair labor practice charges against the Park Board alleging that the Park Board had refused to bargain with the Union, in violation of section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the Act. 29 U.S.C. Secs. 158(a)(5) and (1). The Park Board admitted in its answer that it had refused to bargain with the Union. It denied, however, that it was an employer engaged in commerce subject to the NLRB's jurisdiction. It pled that it is an agency and instrumentality of the City of New Madrid, and therefore a political subdivision exempt from the Act.
The NLRB issued a decision and order on March 28, 1984, finding the Park Board to be subject to the NLRB's jurisdiction. It concluded that the Park Board had unlawfully refused to bargain with the Union. It ordered the Park Board to cease and desist from this refusal, to bargain on request with the Union, and, if an understanding is reached, to embody the understanding in a signed agreement.
The Park Board then filed a petition for review of the NLRB decision and order in this Court. The NLRB cross-applied for enforcement of its order.
Section 2(2) of the Act provides:
(2) The term "employer" includes any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly, but shall not include the United States or any wholly owned Government corporation, or any Federal Reserve Bank, or any State or political subdivision thereof, or any person subject to the Railway Labor Act [45 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq.], as amended from time to time, or any labor...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
N.L.R.B. v. Parents and Friends of Specialized Living Center
...exerted "a substantial degree of control" over it. Mississippi City Lines, 223 N.L.R.B. 11 (1976). See also St. Jude Indust. Park Bd. v. N.L.R.B., 760 F.2d 223, 225-26 (8th Cir.1985); Golden Day Schools, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 644 F.2d 834, 836 (9th Cir.1981). The NLRB's jurisdiction is not asse......
-
Brock v. Chicago Zoological Soc.
...with the state is essentially one of a private contractor rather than an administrative agency. See St. Jude Indus. Park Bd. v. NLRB, 760 F.2d 223, 225 (8th Cir.1985); Jefferson Cty. Community Center v. NLRB, 732 F.2d 122, 125 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1086, 105 S.Ct. 591, 83 L.Ed......
-
Nat'l Labor Relations v. Young Woman's Christian Assoc.
...and had to be done on a case-by-case basis. Id. Our pre-1995 government contractor cases, including Mayflower, St. Jude Indus. Park Bd. v. NLRB, 760 F.2d 223 (8th Cir. 1985), and NLRB v. St. Louis Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Center, Inc., 633 F.2d 1268 (8th Cir. 1980), which indicated......
-
Mayflower Contract Services, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., s. 92-1696
...v. E.C. Atkins and Co., 331 U.S. 398, 412-14, 67 S.Ct. 1265, 1272-74, 91 L.Ed. 1563 (1947), and St. Jude Industrial Park Board v. National Labor Relations Board, 760 F.2d 223, 226 (8th Cir.1985); see also National Labor Relations Board v. St. Louis Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Center, ......