Union gripes held not a request to bargain

Unionized employers may not implement unilateral changes to wages, hours and working conditions without first providing the union notice and an opportunity to bargain. A union is not required to bargain at that point. Unions often do not; many unilateral changes are everyday and, for unions, often involve no issue warranting negotiation.

In this case, the union, through its president, expressed discontent with a change, condescendingly threatening the company’s labor relations director with “a board charge honey.” He said he would “have to come to (company headquarters) for this one.” While he followed through with his threat to file a board charge, he did not actually request to negotiate, schedule a time to come to, much less go to corporate headquarters.

While a divided NLRB held that his expressions of discontent were sufficient to trigger negotiations, the Sixth Circuit disagreed. “These comments expressed disapproval, to be sure; but that establishes only protest,” the Court held.

The pertinent question is whether, in light of the record as a whole, they clearly signaled a request to bargain. On that point, they were at best ambiguous rather than clear.

The case was Ohio Edison Co. v. NLRB, case no. 15-1783 (6th Cir. 2/10/17).

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