Summary of NLRB Decisions for Week of February 18 - 21, 2020
The Summary of NLRB Decisions is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for the opinions of the NLRB. Inquiries should be directed to the Office of the Executive Secretary at 202‑273‑1940.
Summarized Board Decisions
No Published Decisions Issued.
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Unpublished Board Decisions in Representation and Unfair Labor Practice Cases
R Cases
NP Lake Mead LLC d/b/a Fiesta Henderson Casino Hotel (28-RC-245493) Henderson, NV, February 20, 2020. The Board granted the Petitioner’s Request for Review of the Regional Director’s Order Granting Employer’s Request for Reconsideration, Mooting Employer’s Motion to Extend Time for Filing Offer of Proof, Revoking Regional Director’s Decision on Objections and Certification of Representative, Setting Aside Election Results, and Directing Rerun Election and remanded the case to the Regional Director for a hearing on the Employer’s objections, instructing the Regional Director to apply the standard set forth in Polymers, Inc., 174 NLRB 282 (1969). Petitioner—Local Joint Executive Board of Las Vegas a/w UNITE HERE International Union. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
Value Added Processing, Inc. (06-RD-252755) Pittsburgh, PA, February 20, 2020. The Board denied the Employer’s Request for Review of the Regional Director’s Order Granting Union’s Request to Block the Election and Order Cancelling Hearing as it raised no substantial issues warranting review. Petitioner—an Individual. Union—United Steel Workers of America, Local 5852-24, AFL-CIO, CLC. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
New Lebanon SNF, LLC d/b/a SKLD New Lebanon (09-RD-250763) New Lebanon, OH, February 20, 2020. The Board denied the Petitioner’s Request for Review of the Acting Regional Director’s Decision and Order as it raised no substantial issues warranting review. Petitioner—an Individual. Union—Service Employees International Union (SEIU), District 1199. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
Mercy Health Partners (07-RC-232247) Muskegon, MI, February 21, 2020. The Board denied the Employer’s and the Petitioner’s Requests for Review of the Acting Regional Director’s determination to hold the petition in abeyance as they raised no substantial issues warranting review. The Board noted that, although it was troubled by the extreme delay in processing the petition, the circumstances fell short of establishing that the Acting Regional Director abused her discretion under current law. Petitioner—Michigan Nurses Association. Intervenor—SEIU Healthcare Michigan. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
G2 Secure Staff, LLC (29-UD-232699) Queens, NY, February 21, 2020. The Board, giving deference to an advisory opinion from the National Mediation Board, found that the Employer’s operations are subject to the Railway Labor Act. Accordingly, the Board dismissed the petition. Petitioner—an Individual. Union—Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
C Cases
Leggett & Platt, Inc. (09-CA-194057, et al.) Winchester, KY, February 19, 2020. The Board denied the Respondent’s Motion for Reconsideration of the Board’s decision, reported at 368 NLRB No. 132 (2019) not to apply Johnson Controls, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 20 (2019), retroactively to this case. The Board found that the Respondent had not identified any material error or demonstrated extraordinary circumstances warranting reconsideration. Charge filed by International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), AFL-CIO. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Allied Industrial, and Service Workers Local 1-912 (Toledo Refining Company, LLC) (08-CB-238577) Oregon, OH, February 19, 2020. No exceptions having been filed to the December 9, 2019 decision of Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan’s finding that the Respondent had not engaged in certain unfair labor practices, the Board adopted the judge’s findings and conclusions, and ordered the complaint dismissed. Charge filed by an individual.
Kenworth Sales Co. d/b/a Kenworth Sales Spokane (19-CA-233407) Spokane, WA, February 19, 2020. No exceptions having been filed to the January 7, 2020 decision of Administrative Law Judge Ariel L. Sotolongo’s finding that the Respondent had not engaged in certain unfair labor practices, the Board adopted the judge’s findings and conclusions, and ordered the complaint dismissed. Charge filed by International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge 751, AFL-CIO.
Bannum Place of Saginaw, LLC (07-CA-207685, et al.) Saginaw, MI, February 20, 2020. The Board denied the Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss the Complaint on the grounds that the Respondent failed to demonstrate that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Charges filed by Local 406, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and an individual. Chairman Ring and Members Kaplan and Emanuel participated.
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Appellate Court Decisions
Dillon Companies, Inc. d/b/a King Soopers, Board Case No. 27-CA-237098 (reported at 367 NLRB No. 141) (D.C. Cir. decided February 21, 2020).
In an unpublished judgment, the Court enforced the Board’s bargaining order issued against this operator of a supermarket chain in the mountain region of the western United States after deli-counter employees at one of its three stores in Broomfield, Colorado, voted 10-2 to join an existing bargaining unit of meat-department employees working at all three Broomfield stores that is represented by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 7. In doing so, the Court held that the Board’s determination that the deli employees could vote on whether to join the existing unit was a matter within the Board’s discretion and fully supported by the record evidence.
In the underlying representation case, the Union petitioned to represent the deli employees as part of the existing unit of meat-department employees through the vehicle of a “self-determination” election, also known as an Armour-Globe election. The Employer opposed the petition by arguing that the existing unit would not be appropriate if the deli employees were added, and that various alternative units that would combine deli and retail employees at different Colorado stores would be appropriate. After a hearing, the Regional Director issued a decision finding the petitioned-for election appropriate under the principles of Warner-Lambert Co., 298 NLRB 993 (1990). Specifically, the Regional Director found that the deli employees (1) shared a community of interest with the meat-department employees in the existing unit (given their similar functions, skills, training, hours, and wages, and their frequent interaction), and (2) constituted an “identifiable, distinct segment” of the unrepresented employees that constituted “an appropriate voting group,” as required for a self-determination election. See id. at 995. The Board (Chairman Ring and Members McFerran and Kaplan) denied the Employer’s Request for Review of the Regional Director’s decision. In May 2018, after an election was held in which the deli employees voted to join the existing unit, the Regional Director certified the Union as their representative. The Employer then refused to bargain in order to seek court review.
The Court held that the Board’s authorization of the self-determination election was proper and rejected the Employer’s three arguments to the contrary. First, the Court found that the Employer’s contention that the Board should have applied the test of PCC Structurals, Inc., 365 NLRB No. 160 (2017), was misplaced because that case “addressed the different question of whether the ‘smallest appropriate unit must include employees excluded from the petitioned-for unit,’” quoting id. at slip op. 7. Rather, the Court explained, “[t]he preexisting unit here is indisputably of appropriate size and will continue to be so with the new members.” Second, citing the wide discretion the Board exercises in determining what constitutes an appropriate unit, the Court held that there was no basis to disturb that determination on the record in this case. Third, the Court found no merit to the Employer’s contentions that the Board had ignored the parties’ bargaining history, or that it had unlawfully altered the collective-bargaining agreement covering the existing unit by directing the election.
The Court’s unpublished judgment may be found here.
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Administrative Law Judge Decisions
Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. d/b/a Little Big Burger (19-CA-239759; JD(SF)-06-20) Portland, OR. Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey D. Wedekind issued his decision on February 19, 2020. Charge filed by Little Big Union, Industrial Workers of the World.
Wilkes-Barre Behavioral Hospital Co., LLC d/b/a First Hospital Wyoming Valley (04-CA-215690; JD-85-19) Kingston, PA. Errata to Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter’s November 5, 2019 decision. Errata Amended Decision.
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