H & D, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board

H & D, Inc. (H & D) and two other employers took part in contract negotiations with the Ironworkers Shopmen Local Union No. 506. No formal multiemployer bargaining agreement was executed. After negotiations failed to produce a new contract, almost all of H & D’s employees resigned from the union. The employees refused to take part in a strike called by the union and filed, but later withdrew, a petition seeking decertification. When the union refused to consent to H & D’s request to 'withdraw from negotiations, H & D withdrew unilaterally, citing the impasse as justification. The union filed suit, charging that H & D’s refusal to bargain as part of the multiemployer group was an unfair labor practice.

The administrative law judge found no unfair labor practice because no multiem-ployer unit had ever existed. The Board reversed, finding that a multiemployer bargaining unit existed, that there was no bargaining impasse, and that the mass resignation of H & D’s employees from the union did not otherwise create an “unusual circumstance” justifying withdrawal from negotiations. See Retail Associates, Inc., 120 N.L.R.B. 388 (1958); see infra p. 122-123. H & D, Inc. petitioned for…