CAL Cartage Transportation Express, LLC

National Labor Relations Board - Unpublished Board Decisions

Feb 24, 2021

21-CA-247884 (N.L.R.B. Feb. 24, 2021)

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
CAL CARTAGE TRANSPORTATION
EXPRESS, LLC
and Case 21-CA-247884
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS
ORDER1
The Respondent’s motion for summary judgment is denied. The Respondent has
failed to establish that there are no genuine issues of material fact warranting a hearing
and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Nor has the Respondent
established that summary judgment and dismissal of the complaint is appropriate
because the alleged conduct is de minimis. This case, involving alleged misclassification
of drivers as independent contractors and alleged retaliation against them for seeking to
unionize and to clarify their employment status through a state-court lawsuit, is simply
not analogous to American Federation of Musicians Local 76 (Jimmy Wakely Show), 202
NLRB 620, 622 (1973) (finding technical violation of the Act not worthy of Board’s
limited resources, as it was “so insignificant and so largely rendered meaningless by
[r]espondent’s subsequent conduct”) or other cases on which the Respondent relies. In
those cases, alleged minor or isolated violations had been repudiated or corrected
1 The National Labor Relations Board has delegated its authority in this proceeding to a
three-member panel.
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without lingering effects on the workforce or derogation of the public interest that the
Board serves to vindicate. See Robinson Freight Lines, 117 NLRB 1483, 1485 (1957)
(stating that Board’s prevention of unfair labor practices “is to be performed in the
public interest and not in vindication of private rights”); Dish Network Service Corp., 339
NLRB 1126, 1128 fn. 11 (2003) (declining to find violation de minimis where unlawful
conduct had not “been substantially remedied or effectively contradicted by later
conduct”).
Dated, Washington, D.C., February 24, 2021
LAUREN McFERRAN, CHAIRMAN
WILLIAM J. EMANUEL, MEMBER
JOHN F. RING, MEMBER