NLRB Advice Memoranda, Washington Teachers Union, National Labor Relations Board, (Nov 4, 2022)

The Region submitted this case for guidance because, pursuant to GC Memo 21-04 Mandatory Submissions to Advice, it implicates whether to urge the Board to overrule Linden Lumber Div., Summer & Co., 190 NLRB 718 (1971), rev'd sub nom. Truck Drivers Union Local No. 413 v. NLRB, 487 F.2d 1099 (1973), rev'd, 419 U.S. 301 (1974), and reinstate the Joy Silk Mills doctrine, 85 NLRB 1263 (1949), enforced, 185 F.2d 732 (D.C. Cir. 1950), cert. denied, 341 U.S. 914 (1951). We conclude that this case is not an appropriate vehicle for pursuing this change in law. Even assuming the staff union enjoyed majority support, there is no violation of extant Board law and there are no related meritorious allegations so as to warrant pursuing a Joy Silk allegation. [1] ​     ​ In so finding, we note that the General Counsel takes position that the Board should reinstate Joy Silk in its original form, with the employer bearing the burden to demonstrate its good faith doubt as to majority status without requiring an increased threshold of “substantial unfair labor practices” to demonstrate the lack of s good faith. See ​     ​ Under this standard, an employer may lack good faith doubt even in the absence of unfair labor practices. See ​     ​. Additionally, we note that a failure to answer a request for bargaining, as occurred here, is inconsistent with good faith, and that a failure to seek clarification of any purported doubt (based, for example, on confusion over the scope of the unit) at the time of the demand evinces bad faith. See id. ​     ​

This email closes this case in Advice. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

​     ​