National Labor Relations Board v. Edjo, Inc., D/B/A Jose Costa Trucking

The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) petitions for enforcement of its order requiring Edjo, Inc. (Edjo) to bargain upon request with Teamsters Local 137 (Local 137), to make whole the employees in the bargaining unit to which this case relates by remitting all pension contributions and other wages or benefits lost as a result of Edjo’s alleged unfair labor practices, and to post appropriate notices. The Board’s order followed its decision that Edjo was a successor to Joe Costa Trucking Co. (Costa Trucking) and that “Edjo violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the [National Labor Relations] Act by making unilateral changes in the terms and conditions of employment of its employees at a time when it was legally bound, by virtue of its successor status, to bargain with the Union concerning any such changes.” Joe Costa Trucking Co., 238 NLRB No. 207 , slip op. at 3, 1978-79 NLRB Dec. (CCH) ¶¶ 15,091-92 (Sept. 29, 1978). The Board rejected Edjo’s defense that it was not required to bargain with Local 137 or to honor the terms of a collective bargaining agreement that Costa Trucking had entered into because it held a good-faith doubt as to the union’s continued majority…

(concurring in the result only):

I concur in the result. I also agree with the final conclusion that the respondent on the facts of this case had a duty to bargain with the union and to consult with it before unilaterally changing the terms and conditions of employment.

However, I am of the opinion that the duty to bargain about a change in the terms and conditions of the employment was in no way conditioned on the employer’s good faith doubt about whether the affected employees were represented by the union. Consequently, whether the Board properly applied a presumption that a certain proportion of “new hires” would favor the union is irrelevant. An explanation of my view requires only a brief explication of the facts. When, as set forth in the majority opinion, “in 1977 Costa retired and sold the company to Edjo,” that was accomplished by a sale of all of the shares of stock in Costa owned by Mr. Costa and his wife. Furthermore, not only were all of Costa Trucking’s 21 drivers retained on Costa’s payroll after that sale, the drivers continued to do the same work as before out of the same location. There were no changed conditions at all created by the shift of stock. The only…

631 F.2d 604 105 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3061 , 89 Lab.Cas. P 12,351 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. EDJO, INC., d/b/a Jose Costa Trucking, Respondent. No. 79-7002. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted May 14, 1980. Decided Oct. 28, 1980. Kenneth B. Hipp, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., for petitioner; Elliott Moore, N. L. R. B., Washington, D. C., on brief. Mark D. Jordan, Santa Rosa, Cal., for respondent. On Application for Enforcement of Order. Before SNEED and POOLE, Circuit Judges, and BLUMENFELD, * District Judge. POOLE, Circuit Judge: 1 The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) petitions for enforcement of its order requiring Edjo, Inc. (Edjo) to bargain upon request with Teamsters Local 137 (Local 137), to make whole the employees in the bargaining unit to which this case relates by remitting all pension contributions and other wages or benefits lost as a result of Edjo's alleged unfair labor practices, and to post appropriate notices. The Board's order followed its decision that Edjo was a successor to Joe Costa Trucking Co. (Costa Trucking) and that "Edjo violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the (National Labor Relations) Act by…