Federal Pacific Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 24, 1974

215 N.L.R.B. 861 (N.L.R.B. 1974)

FEDERAL PACIFIC ELECTRIC CO. 861
Federal Pacific Electric Company and Local Union
2338, International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers , AFL-CIO-CLC. Cases 11-CA-4750 and
11-CA-4969
December 24, 1974
SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND ORDER
By MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND PENELLO
On May 14, 1973, the National Labor Relations
Board issued its Decision and Order in the instant
case' finding, inter alia, that "a general bargaining or-
der is the appropriate remedy, rather than a specific
extension of the certification year."2 On June 20,
1974, the United States Court of Appeals for the Dis-
trict of Columbia Circuit entered its decision3 grant-
ing the Board's petition for enforcement but remanding
the instant case in order to provide the Board "an
opportunity to state the basis of its denial of the request
for extension of the certification year," so that the
court, in considering the Charging Party's petition
seeking a specific extension of 6 months in accord with
remedies found appropriate since Mar-Jac Poultry
Company, Inc.,' could meaningfully review the
Board's decision.
Mar-Jac applied the rule of Ray Brooks v.
N.L.R.B.,5 that normally an employer will be required
to honor a certification for a period of 1 year, in a
situation where the employer-petitioner has bargained
for only 6 months during the more than 2 years since
certification. Bargaining has been interrupted by unfair
labor practice charges and settlement thereof, as well as
by the filing of an RM petition by the successor. In
dismissing the RM petition and extending the certifica-
tion year, the Board specified that the employer, having
already bargained for 6 months, was obligated to con-
tinue to bargain "for at least an additional 6 months
i 203 NLRB No 93
2 Id
3 499 F 2d 542
4 136 NLRB 785 (1962)
5 348 U S 96 (1954)
from the resumption of negotiations," thus affording
the union at least 12 months of good-faith bargaining.
A similar 6-month period of bargaining occurred in
Haymarket Bookbinders, Inc.,6 where the Board spec-
ified that an extension of 6 months after resumption of
good-faith bargaining "does not, of course, necessarily
mean that the Respondent's duty to bargain terminates
upon expiration of the additional 6 month period."
Here, after slightly more than 8 months of bargain-
ing, the Respondent, in December 1971, ceased to bar-
gain in good faith, as the Board found and the court
agreed. The Board, based on established practice,
might have provided an extension period of at least
3-1/2 months from resumption of negotiations. A spe-
cific 6-month extension, as requested by the Union,
would not on its face have been appropriate and the
Union urged no special considerations. An extension of
only 3-1/2 months might well afford the Union an
inadequate remedy, and customarily the Board has not
given specific extensions to such short duration. In the
circumstances, as the General Counsel argued to the
court, the general bargaining order granted may well be
more meaningful.' It was so intended. That remedy
requires bargaining for a reasonable period of time,
determinable in each case by the bargaining issues and
the circumstances which evolve once negotiations have
been resumed. It will not necessarily lapse upon the
expiration of 3-1/2 months from resumption of good-
faith bargaining.
For these reasons, we respectfully adhere to our
original choice of remedy and shall affirm our original
Order.
ORDER
Pursuant to Section 10(c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, the National Labor Relations Board
hereby orders that Respondent, Federal Pacific Elec-
tric Company, Albermarle, North Carolina, its officers,
agents, successors, and assigns, shall take the action set
forth in our original Order dated May 14, 1973.
6 183 NLRB 121 (1970)
7 Inadvertently the General Counsel in his brief to the court spoke of the
inadequacy of a simple Mar-Jac extension of "two" months The argument
is equally applicable to the 3-1/2-month period that occurred here
215 NLRB No. 158