Recon Refractory & Construction Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board

We are called upon to resolve a dispute between Recon Refractory & Construction Inc. (“Recon”) and the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers, Local 4 (“Bricklayers” or “Local 4”). To decrease its labor costs, Recon reassigned work previously performed by Bricklayers members, and protected by the Bricklay ers’ collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”), to employees represented by the Industrial, Professional and Technical Workers International Union (“IPTW”). The dispute at issue is fundamentally a work-preservation dispute between Recon and the Bricklayers, not an inter-union jurisdictional dispute between the Bricklayers and the IPTW. Because Recon itself precipitated the dispute in an attempt to avoid its obligations to the Bricklayers, we deny Recon’s petition for review of the National Labor Relations Board’s (“Board”) decision quashing notice of hearing under section 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), 29 U.S.C. § 160 (k). Indus., Prof'l & Technical Workers Int'l Union (Recon Refractory), 339 N.L.R.B. 825 (2003).

I.

Dan Bellamy founded Recon, a refractory installation company, in 1990. Shortly thereafter, the company signed on to the…