National Labor Relations Board v. District Council of Iron Workers of California & Vicinity

The National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) petitions for enforcement of an order issued against the District Council of Iron Workers of the State of California and Vicinity (the “District Council”) and Iron Workers Local Union No. 155 of the International Union of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL-CIO (“Local 155”).

The order of the Board finds that the District Council and Local 155 (collectively “the Unions”) engaged in unfair labor prae-tices in violation of Section 8(b)(3) and (d) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 151-160(a), (“the NLRA”), by repudiating and attempting to compel J.W. Reinforcing Steel, Inc. (“the Company”) to agree to midterm modifications of the collective bargaining agreement. The order directs the Unions to cease and desist from failing or refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith with the Company and to honor the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement. The Unions assert that they were not bound by the collective bargaining agreement at issue because it was negotiated by another local and they did not authorize or ratify it. They further argue that the Board violated due process…

dissenting:

I must, respectfully, dissent because the Board did not err in applying accepted principles of agency law to conclude that Soren-sen had apparent authority to enter into the Susanville Agreement. The Board’s order, applying those principles to this case, is supported by substantial evidence and should be enforced.

The Board used well-established, common law principles of agency law to determine whether Sorensen had the authority to enter into the Susanville Agreement. The majority concludes that those principles are inapplicable here and, instead, creates and applies a different test to determine whether apparent authority existed. There is no reason to depart from the traditional agency test in this case. Indeed, the majority fails both to explain why such a departure is warranted and to provide adequate support for the adoption of its new test.

The majority explicitly acknowledges the existence of an established common law test to determine if apparent authority exists:

Apparent authority arises from the principal’s manifestations to a third party that supplies a reasonable basis for that party to believe that the principal has authorized the alleged agent to do…