Culinary Alliance & Bartenders Union, Local 703, Aflcio v. National Labor Relations Board

Culinary Alliance & Bartenders Union, Local 703, AFL-CIO, petitions for review of the order of the National Labor Relations Board which denied the union’s request for compensatory damages while granting other relief from an employer found guilty of an unfair labor practice.

Without deciding whether or to what extent the Board may have the power to grant compensatory damages for an employer’s refusal to bargain, we find that damages would be inappropriate in this case, and deny the union’s petition to remand. The Board decision is reported in San Luis Obispo County & Northern Santa Barbara County Restaurant & Tavern Ass’n, 196 N.L.R.B. No. 155, 80 L.R.R.M. 1584 (1972).

The union and the above-named association, a group of employers existing for the purpose, among others, of bargaining with labor organizations, have been parties to collective-bargaining agreements since at least 1965. During the 1971 contract negotiations, the employers’ association hired E. J. Gund and Associates, a labor-consultation firm which enjoyed a reputation for success in bringing about nonunion conditions in establishments formerly unionized. Through the machinations of Gund and Associates, negotiations…