Legal Report
NLRB Decisions
1. The Board held that the announcement of a wage increase during
the critical time period between the filing of a representation
petition and the holding of an election constitutes objectionable
conduct and a violation of Section 8 (a)(1) of the Act, even though
the actual wage increase itself did not violate the Act. Mercy
Southwest Hospital, 338 NLRB No.66 (Nov.20, 2002).
2. The Board in a 2 to 1 decision (Member Cowen dissenting) found
a violation of Section 8(a)(1)and (5) of the Act by an employer’s
failure to pay contractually mandated wage rates to unit employees
and its failure to remit contractually mandated payments to several
pension, health and welfare and other benefit funds on behalf
of employees. Member Cowen would have dismissed the Complaint
and left the matter to the parties to resolve through their own
bargained-for-procedure or in Court. A.T.Electric Construction
Corp.338 NLRB No. 37 (Sept.30, 2002).
3. The Board held that an employer violates Section 8(a)(1) and
(3) of the Act by failing to reinstate six striking employees
even though the strike was unprotected from its inception, where
the Employer predicated reinstatement on the strikers’ abandonment
of the Union. The strikers had struck over the Employer’s
failure to place in the contract an invalid 8(e) clause. When
faced with an offer to return to work, the Employer refused to
reinstate the six employees until they each rejected the Union.
Pratt Towers, Inc.338 NLRB No.8 (Sept.30,2002).
4. The Board in a 3 to 0 decision affirmed the ALJ, finding that
the motivating factor in an employee’s discharge was her
organizing a walkout among employees to protest the Employer’s
working conditions, even though the evidence also demonstrated
that the employee had trouble getting along with fellow employees.
J.L.R.Hotel, Inc.338 NLRB No. 27 (Sept.30,2002).
