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1 - National Labor Relations Board

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Unfair <strong>Labor</strong> Practices 93<br />

<strong>Board</strong> rejected the employer's contention that it was actually<br />

locking out the laid-off employees, and that the right of lockout<br />

necessarily includes the right to deviate temporarily from existing<br />

seniority practices without consulting the union. In the<br />

<strong>Board</strong>'s view, the layoff was not used as an affirmative bargaining<br />

strategy, but was motivated by a desire to eliminate those<br />

operations which could not operate efficiently under threat of a<br />

strike and which involved potential danger to the public in the<br />

event that a strike actually occurred. Under these circumstances,<br />

a unilateral change in contractually established terms could not<br />

be justified merely by saying it was temporary, since no such<br />

unilateral change could be made unless the employer had first<br />

satisfied its obligation to bargain with the union before making<br />

the change.6°<br />

In the other case, 61 in return for the employer's agreement<br />

that if negotiations for a new contract continued beyond the<br />

expiration date of the old contract any wage increase would be<br />

made retroactive to that date, the union agreed, in effect, that<br />

all of the terms of the old contract would be kept in effect until<br />

agreement on a new contract was reached or the union called<br />

a strike. Some of the employees subsequently went on strike<br />

and continued on strike despite repeated warnings by both the<br />

employer and the union that they were in violation of the nostrike<br />

clause of the old contract and that their jobs were in<br />

jeopardy. The <strong>Board</strong> held that the employer did not violate<br />

section 8(a) (1) of the Act when it discharged some of the<br />

striking employees and placed the others on probation, since the<br />

employees had forfeited their right to reinstatement by striking<br />

in violation of the no-strike provision of the extended contract<br />

then in effect. In the <strong>Board</strong>'s view, there was no factual basis for<br />

concluding that the no-strike provision, one of the most essential<br />

elements of the old contract, was deleted while the remainder<br />

of the contract was extended. Without the extension of the nostrike<br />

provision, there would be no logical or economic reason for<br />

the employer's willingness to accede to the union's demand for<br />

wage retroactivity. Moreover, it was clear that the parties intended<br />

that the existing contract would be terminated only if the<br />

60 Chairman McCulloch and Member Fanning for the majority. Member Brown, concurring,<br />

would find the unilateral changes in seniority and layoff practices unlawful even if the<br />

employees involved were locked out after an impasse, since such charges had not been at<br />

issue in the negotiations prior to the impasse.<br />

el Kroger Co. (Cleveland Div.), 177 NLRB No. 104.

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