Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
NOV 10 1998
PUBLISH
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
TENTH CIRCUIT
ALBERTSONS, INCORPORATED,
Petitioner,
v.
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
BOARD,
Respondent,
No. 97-9509
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) brought unfair labor practice
charges against Albertsons, Inc. (Albertsons) under section 8(a)(1) of the
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. 158(a)(1). The NLRBs
complaint alleged that Albertsons engaged in disparate enforcement of its nosolicitation policy against the union representing Albertsons employees, thereby
assisting employees in filing a decertification petition, and engaged in
surveillance of employees union activities by confiscating and photocopying prounion materials. After a hearing, an administrative law judge (ALJ) issued a
decision and recommended order finding that Albertsons had committed unfair
labor practices. The NLRB adopted the ALJs findings of fact, conclusions of
law, and recommended order. Albertsons appeals, contending that the NLRBs
section 8(a)(1) holdings are contrary to law and not supported by substantial
evidence, and that the NLRB improperly held the decertification petition tainted
by the alleged unfair labor practices. The NLRB has cross-petitioned for
enforcement of its order. We affirm and enforce the NLRBs order.
I.
Albertsons operates a grocery store in Rapid City, South Dakota, where it
engages in the retail sale of groceries and employs approximately 100 people. At
all times relevant to this litigation, Albertsons had the following no-3-
solicitation policy:
Non-employees may not solicit, distribute literature or use
sound devices on Company premises at any time.
Employees who are working should not be disturbed,
interrupted or disrupted by solicitations or the distribution of
literature. Unauthorized presence of any employee in the non-selling
areas of the store or in other non-public areas of our facility for any
purpose is strictly prohibited unless the employee is on duty,
preparing to come on duty, or preparing to leave after having been on
duty.
No employee may engage in solicitation of any kind during
working time, or while the person(s) he or she is soliciting is on
working time. Further, no employee may distribute literature during
working time or in working areas (note: working time does not
include authorized periods of off-duty times e.g., meal time, break
time, etc.).
Rec., vol. 2, General Counsels Ex. 2.
According to the findings of the ALJ, 1 certain Albertsons employees in the
spring of 1994 undertook a union organizing campaign. Employee David Dahl
spoke with fellow employees about the union and distributed election
authorization cards. In March 1994, store director Dan Yeazel informed Dahl that
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he was displeased about Dahls union organizing activities. When Dahl asked
Yeazels permission to speak with employees in the break room while they were
off the clock, Yeazel refused and suggested that Dahls pro-union efforts
threatened his status with the company. Albertsons later reduced Dahls hours,
resulting in the unions filing of charges with the NLRB and an eventual private
settlement agreement.
In June 1994, the union won a representation election and bargained over
the course of the next year with Albertsons over the terms and conditions of a
collective bargaining agreement. During this time, store cashier Diane Pesek, a
local union supporter, became a member of the union negotiating committee and
attended bargaining sessions. Sometime in 1994, shortly after the election, Pesek
attempted to circulate a petition concerning year-round school in Rapid City.
Grocery manager John Binger told Pesek that such solicitation on the sales floor
or while Pesek was on the clock violated company policy.
In July 1995, cashiers Gary Wehner and Carmel Lefor became dissatisfied
with the unions inability to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement and
discussed circulating a decertification petition. Wehner approached Yeazel for
information on how to go about decertifying the union and Yeazel gave him the
telephone number of the NLRBs regional office. Wehner also spoke with
Christopher Yost, Albertsons labor relations representative, who apprized him of
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the company policy regarding solicitation. Wehner and two others subsequently
circulated a decertification petition over a four-day period between July 18 and
July 21 and secured 43 signatures, several of which were those of supervisors.
Wehner and his colleagues solicited signatures while they were themselves on the
clock and solicited others who were on the clock.
It is also clear that several Albertsons supervisors witnessed and
participated in on-the-clock solicitation for the decertification petition. On one
occasion, supervisor Randy Stewart witnessed but did not prohibit Wehner from
attempting to solicit Peseks signature as she stood in line as a customer to buy
groceries during a busy period at the store. 2 Pesek testified that the solicitation
occurred between 4:30 and 5:00 P.M. and that Stewart was working at a check
stand, an indication that the store was busy. On another occasion, Wehner
solicited the signature of employee Jerray Bachman in the presence of supervisor
Dave Motorude, who also did nothing to stop Wehner. Other supervisors signed
the petition while they were working and discussed the petition with other
employees who were working. For example, employee Nancy Anderson solicited
the signature of liquor store manager Kirk Murphy at approximately 10:00 or
11:00 A.M. while he was waiting on customers. Anderson took over Murphys
check stand while he went to ask managers Yeazel and Stewart whether he was
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allowed to sign the petition. They informed him that he was permitted to sign and
suggested that he should take his break and do so.
On September 15, 1995, shortly following her return from maternity leave,
Pesek spoke to union president Tom Johnson about Wehners decertification
efforts. Later, at approximately six oclock in the evening (an undisputedly busy
time at the store), Johnson brought a pro-union petition attached to a clipboard to
the check stand where Pesek was working and handed it to her while she was
waiting for a customer to sign a check. Pesek then passed the petition to two
other employees and asked them to sign it. These events transpired in a period of
approximately twenty seconds. Supervisor Connie Mehrer witnessed this
exchange and directed supervisor Sally Weaver to find out what was on the
clipboard. Although Pesek specifically told Weaver that she was circulating a
petition, Weaver confiscated the petition, carried it away, photocopied it, and
placed it in the companys safe. When Pesek asked Weaver to return the petition,
Weaver informed her that Yeazel had said she could not have it until she got off
work and that she was not to have it on the sales floor or at any time she was on
the clock.
Based on these facts, the NLRB found that Albertsons had violated section
8(a)(1) of the NLRA by disparately enforcing its no-solicitation policy and by
engaging in surveillance of the employees union activities. The NLRB
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subsequently ordered Albertsons to cease and desist from these unfair labor
practices and to post copies of an appropriate remedial notice. 3
II.
Albertsons contends the NLRBs decision that it violated section 8(a)(1) of
the NLRA by disparately enforcing its no-solicitation policy and engaging in
unlawful surveillance is not supported by substantial evidence. While our review
of the NLRBs legal determinations is de novo, see Medite of New Mexico, Inc.
v. NLRB, 72 F.3d 780, 785 (10th Cir. 1995), we uphold the NLRBs factual
findings if they are supported by substantial evidence in the record as a whole. 29
U.S.C. 160(e) (1994); see also NLRB v. L & B Cooling, Inc., 757 F.2d 236, 241
(10th Cir. 1985) (citing Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474 (1951)).
Substantial evidence is evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as
adequate to support a conclusion. NLRB v. Oklahoma Fixture Co., 79 F.3d
1030, 1033 (10th Cir. 1996) (citing Intermountain Rural Elec. Assn v. NLRB,
As we discuss infra, Albertsons places great significance on the status of
the decertification petition, claiming that it was dismissed as part of the NLRBs
determination that Albertsons committed unfair labor practices. However,
neither the NLRBs order nor the record before this court contains any reference
to dismissal of the decertification petition. We therefore assume for the sake of
responding to the assertions set forth in Albertsons brief that any dismissal or
suspension of the petition occurred in accordance with the NRLBs authority to
regulate representation elections under section 9 of the NLRA. See 29 U.S.C.
159 (1994).
3
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the workplace and during work time and prohibited employee Pesek from
engaging in pro-union solicitation only because it disrupted customer service at a
busy hour. We find no merit in this assertion. First, as we have previously noted,
we will not disturb the NLRBs determinations of witness credibility or lack
thereof except in rare circumstances. See Osteopathic Hosp. Founders Assn v.
NLRB, 618 F.2d 633, 638 (10th Cir. 1980) ([I]t is not within our province to
upset a credibility determination of a hearing officer absent extraordinary
circumstances.). In this case, the NLRB adopted the ALJs credibility
assessments, as do we. See Ready Mixed Concrete Co. v. NLRB, 81 F.3d 1546,
1551 (10th Cir. 1996); NLRB v. Whitlow Corp., 666 F.2d 1294, 1299-1300 (10th
Cir. 1981); Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Co. v. NLRB, 326 F.2d 949, 952 (10th
Cir. 1964) (citing Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474 (1951) (The
probative force that should be given an examiners report reaches its highest
significance when an issue turns upon credibility.).
The ALJ found that Albertsons engaged in disparate enforcement of its nosolicitation policy beginning on July 18, 1995, when it allowed employee Wehner
and others to solicit support for a decertification petition on work time even
though it had prohibited another employee from doing the same in support of a
pro-union petition in 1994, and even though it later prohibited employee Pesek
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Childrens Hosp. v. NLRB, 97 F.3d 583, 589 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (finding violation
of section 8(a)(1) where company regularly allowed non-union solicitations while
prohibiting union solicitations); Midwest Stock Exch., Inc., 635 F.2d at 1270
(same). The NLRB relied on Albertsons refusal to allow pro-union solicitations
in 1994 and again in September 1995 as evidence of the companys discrimination
in favor of anti-union activities and not as evidence that the company created an
atmosphere that led employees to sign the decertification petition. It defies logic
to suggest, as Albertsons does, that the NLRB must look only to company
prohibitions of pro-union solicitations occurring at the very moment it is
permitting anti-union solicitations in order to assess whether the company is
engaging in disparate enforcement. The NLRB must necessarily look at the
companys practices over a period of time in order to determine discriminatory
enforcement. As such, the NLRBs reliance on this evidence was entirely proper.
See Lucile Salter Packard Childrens Hosp., 97 F.3d at 589 (finding 8(a)(1)
violation after determining company regularly, and over a period of time, allowed
non-union solicitations while prohibiting union solicitations); Montgomery Ward
& Co. v. NLRB, 692 F.2d 1115, 1123 (7th Cir. 1982) (concluding company
engaged in disparate enforcement of no-solicitation policy based on other
incidents where company allowed non-union solicitations).
Albertsons also contends the NLRB should not have relied on the events of
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rights, see Montgomery Ward, 692 F.2d at 1128, was reasonable and supported
by substantial evidence.
We turn finally to Albertsons assertion that the NLRB erroneously
concluded the July 1995 decertification petition was tainted by unfair labor
practices, thereby leading it to dismiss the petition. 7 The NLRB responds that it
did not find the petition tainted, that no such finding was required in order to find
Albertsons had committed unfair labor practices, and that this court should not
review the disposition of the petition at this time. We agree with the NLRB.
The NLRBs decision does not include any finding that the decertification
petition was tainted by Albertsons unfair labor practices, nor does it order the
dismissal of the decertification petition based on any alleged taint. Albertsons
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claims the NLRB in fact later suspended or dismissed the petition for a
decertification election according to its blocking procedure. 8 See generally,
John P. Luddington, Annotation, Unremedied Unfair Labor Practice Charge to
NLRB Election as Ground for Postponing Election (Blocking Charge
Procedure), 18 A.L.R. F ED . 420 (1974). We note that courts have approved the
blocking procedure as properly within the NLRBs statutory authority to conduct
representation elections and have held that a blocking decision falls under the
NLRBs authority to oversee representation proceedings. See, e.g., Bishop v.
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NLRB, 502 F.2d 1024, 1028-29 (5th Cir. 1974); Furrs Inc. v. NLRB, 350 F.2d
84, 86 (10th Cir. 1965); Pacemaker v. NLRB, 260 F.2d 880, 882 (7th Cir. 1958);
Sparks Nugget, Inc. v. Scott, 583 F. Supp 78, 80 & n.5 (D. Nev. 1984). It is thus
unreviewable absent a plain violation of an unambiguous and mandatory
provision of a statute. Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184 (1958); see also Bishop,
502 F.2d at 1027 (noting that committing such decisions to the NLRBs discretion
comports with Congresss determination that the NLRB, and not the courts, is to
be the umpire in representation disputes.)
Because we uphold the Boards finding of unfair labor practices, we are not
in a position to unblock the decertification election if, in fact, it was blocked.
Cf. Bishop, 502 F.2d at 1029. The NLRBs decision whether to hold an election
based on the decertification petition is discretionary. Even so, we suggest that
any harm to employees seeking decertification resulting from the blocking of the
petition is slight in that employees are free to file a new petition so long as it is
circulated and signed in an environment free of unfair labor practices.
III.
We AFFIRM the NLRBs decision finding that Albertsons engaged in
unfair labor practices and ENFORCE the NLRBs order.
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