Union Approach to Health and Safety: - United Steelworkers

E. I. DU PONT & CO.
905
filed by the General Counsel, the Company, and the Union,
I make the following
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. JURISDICTION
The Company, a corporation, manufactures chemicals at
its large Chambers Works chemical plant in Deepwater, New
Jersey, where it annually receives goods valued over $50,000
from outside the State. It admits and I find that it is an employer
engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section
2(2), (6), and (7) of the Act and that the Union is a labor
organization within the meaning of Section 2(5).
II. ALLEGED UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES
A. Safety and Fitness Committees
1. Background
a. Prior case
The legality of the Company’s Jackson Lab Design Team
was litigated in a prior case before Administrative Law Judge
Arline Pacht. The Design Team was one of the quality of
work life committees that the Company created in its
OE/PEP employee-involvement program. As discussed later,
the Company relies in its brief (at 121–128) on allegations
in this prior case to support its Jefferson Chemical affirmative
defense. It also relies (at 139) on the judge’s conclusion—that
employee members of the Design Team ‘‘were
encouraged and did act in a representative capacity’’—in its
argument that the safety and fitness committees do not function
as representational bodies.
On January 30, 1990, the Board, in the absence of exceptions,
adopted Judge Pacht’s findings and conclusions. E. I.
du Pont & Co., Case 4–CA–16801, JD–208–89 (G.C. Exh.
2A). The Board ordered the Company to cease and desist
from dominating the ‘‘formation, operation and administration’’
of the Jackson Lab Design Team or ‘‘any other labor
organization’’ and from ‘‘Bypassing the Union.’’ The Board
also ordered the Company to ‘‘completely disestablish the
Design Team.’’
The adopted findings and conclusions in the judge’s December
22, 1989 decision include the following.
Over the Union’s repeated objections, the Company in the
spring of 1987 created the Design Team ‘‘to function as a
problem-solving body . . . to identify and propose solutions
to problems in the work place’’ and ‘‘to initiate changes
which would improve [Jackson Lab’s] working environment
and increase individual job satisfaction.’’
At the time, from the fall of 1985 to July 1987, all 2200
or 2300 bargaining unit employees at the plant were being
given a 11-day PEP training course. PEP (Personal Effectiveness
Process) is the employee version of MTP (Management
Training Process). The Company had begun implementing
MTP and OE (Organizational Effectiveness) in August 1984.
The objective, in part, was to promote ‘‘a lot of [employee]
involvement and wide participation throughout the organization.’’
The Company ‘‘determined the Design Team’s membership
by hand-picking’’ volunteers to serve. The Design Team
was ‘‘wholly dependent’’ on the Company for financial support.
Guidelines in the training material contained recommendations
for avoiding ‘‘special problems’’ that could be posed
when implementing OE/PEP ‘‘at unionized sites.’’ One recommendation
was to ‘‘Ensure management control,’’ with
‘‘authority and responsibility for decision making’’ remaining
‘‘with management, for they are accountable for the results.’’
Another was that ‘‘Any union officer who may be
asked to participate will . . . do so as an individual.’’
Two of the other recommendations were to ‘‘Assure that
all participants will be offering their thoughts as individuals
and will be speaking only for themselves’’ and to ‘‘Maximize
the number of participating employees . . . to avoid the
appearance of permanent ‘representative’ groups.’’ Yet minutes
of Design Team meetings indicated that the voluntary,
nonelective employee members ‘‘were expected to represent
their co-employees in the areas in which they worked.’’
The judge concluded that the record in that case provided
‘‘ample evidence that the members of the Design Team were
encouraged to and did act in a representative capacity’’ and
were urged ‘‘to find problems and devise solutions’’ to be
presented to the Jackson Lab director. Also, ‘‘apart from
[dealing with management by] transmitting formal proposals’’
to the chief executive officer, ‘‘the rank and file
members of the Design Team ‘dealt with’ management in the
course of their meetings,’’ because half the Design Team
were members of management.
Judge Pacht also concluded: ‘‘By exhorting the Team to
propose solutions to workplace problems, and by adopting
the Team’s proposals before putting them on the bargaining
table, [the Company] created and fostered an organization
whose purpose and functions competed with those of the
Union . ... Moreover, by giving the Team favored treatment,
management signalled to the employees that this rival
entity could bring about change more effectively than the
designated bargaining agent.’’
On December 29, 1989, the plant manager (Works Manager
Richard Stewart), acknowledging receipt of the decision,
stated in an electronic mail message to all employees (C.P.
Exh. 4):
The case only involved the Jackson Lab Design
Team, a small group formed to give employees an opportunity
to improve their work environment, thereby
improving productivity and competitiveness of the Laboratory.
....
We do not believe the decision is well-founded nor
is it representative of the way we need to operate a Research
Laboratory today. At no time did Chambers
Works Management or the Design Team ignore or
hinder the bargaining process. ...
Management feels employees should have input concerning
their jobs and the daily operation of the plant.
There will be no change in our efforts to encourage and
support your active participation in the running of our
business here at Chambers Works.