1 - National Labor Relations Board
1 - National Labor Relations Board
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.