Albertsons, Inc

ALBERTSONS INC 865 Albertsons, Inc and United Food and Commercial Workers, Retail Clerks Union Local No 1105 and United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local No 44 Cases 19-CA-15543 and 19-CA-15612 22 October 1984 DECISION AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN DOTSON AND MEMBERS ZIMMERMAN AND DENNIS Upon charges filed on 24 March 1983 by United Food and Commercial Workers Retail Clerks Union Local No 1105 and 15 April 1983 by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local No 44, the General Counsel of the National Labor Re lations Board issued a complaint on 3 May 1983 and a consolidated complaint on 17 May 1983 against Albertsons, Inc (the Respondent) alleging that it has violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by promulgating, maintaining, and enforcing a rule concerning union buttons On 3 October 1983 all parties filed a stipulation of facts and a motion to transfer the proceeding to the Board for decision without a hearing before an administrative law judge or issuance of a judge's decision On 28 March 1984 the Board approved the stipulation and granted the motion The Re spondent, Local 1105, and the General Counsel filed briefs The National Labor Relations Board has delegat ed its authority in this proceeding to a three member panel On the entire record in this case and after con sideration of the parties briefs, the Board makes the following findings I JURISDICTION The Respondent is a Delaware corporation with offices and places of business in Seattle Washing ton where it is engaged in selling groceries During the past 12 months a representative period the Respondent had gross sales of goods and serv ices valued in excess of $500,000 During the same period it purchased and had delivered to its facili ties within the State of Washington goods and ma tenals valued in excess of $50,000 directly from sources outside the State or from suppliers within the State that had obtained the goods and materials directly from sources outside the State We find that the Respondent is engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act and that Local 1105 and Local 44 are labor or ganizations within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act II UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES A Issue The issue presented is whether the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by promulgat mg, maintaining, and enforcing a rule that prohibits employees from wearing buttons provided by any union B Facts The Respondent operates several retail food stores in the area of Seattle, Washington It pro vides female employees with blue slacks and smock and male employees with a large blue fabric apron embossed with the letter A" to be worn over slacks shirt and tie Produce section employees wear a green plastic apron Local 1105 and Local 44 represent employees at the stores involved in this proceeding 1 Pursuant to applicable collective bargaining agreements, em ployees who work less than a 4 hour shift are enti tled to a 10 minute break per shift, and employees who work more than a 4 hour shift are entitled to a 15 minute break with a 1 hour lunchbreak per shift At all its stores the Respondent provides sep arate employee lunchrooms located away from general merchandise and selling areas About mid February 1983 employees at the van ous stores began wearing Equity in 83 buttons during worktime on their clothing in a manner visi ble to the public The buttons were metal, about 1 inch in diameter and one fourth inch thick, with a dark blue background and white lettering which read UFCW Equity in 83, No Take Aways Concurrently with the wearing of the Equity in 83' buttons Local 1105 distributed two separate handbills to customers outside the King and Snoho mish County stores The leaflets were printed with a copy of the Equity in 83' button in the back ground They thanked customers for support men tioned the profit status of the retail food industry and stated that the Union was seeking an equitable agreement and fighting Concession (take aways) Bargaining In mid March 1983 the Respondent published a rule to all directors and employees at the stores in volved either by posting it adjacent to employee lunchrooms and/or timeclocks or by orally relating it to employees The rule read 1 Local 1105 is the representative of all employees at the Respondent s stores m King and Snohomish Counties Washington Local 44 is the rep resentative of all grocery clerks and meatcutters at the Bellingham Washington store and all meatcutters at the Bothell Edmonds Everett Lynwood Mountlake Terrace and Port Angeles Washington stores The units exclude office clericals guards and supervisors as defined in the Act 272 NLRB No 117 866 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD None of our employees are allowed to wear buttons provided by any union In particular, the button that says Equity in 83 No take aways USCW [sic] 1105 The Respondent has maintained the rule in effect and has directed employees to remove prohibited buttons from their clothing Earlier, during October and November 1980 em ployees at the King and Snohomish County stores had worn recycling" buttons on worktime with the Respondent's acquiescence The buttons, which Local 1105 had distributed, were about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and bore orange, brown and white lettering which stated, Keep on Recycling Vote No #61 ' The message related to a contro versial "bottle bill" issue that the voters of Wash ington later rejected Also, historically employees had worn 'union" buttons in a manner visible to the public in the workplace during worktime The buttons varied in size from three fourths of an inch to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, had different color combinations and bore the name of a labor organi zation or the word steward" After the Respond ent published its button rule, employees were not allowed to wear the union buttons In June through August 1983, following the posting of the button rule in March 1983 the Re spondent provided two buttons to employees to wear publicly during worktime in the workplace One, about 3 inches in diameter, bore the legend Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia only 90 [cents] Vol 1 in red letters on a white back ground The second about 2 1/2 inches in diame ter bore the legend "LUCKY STRIKES AGAIN" in black letters on a red and gold back ground C Contentions of the Parties In support of the complaint the General Counsel contends that the Respondent's button rule contra venes Section 8(a)(1) because the Respondent 'has not established any special circumstances that war rant limiting the employees' right to display union emblems and because the Respondent acted dispar ately in prohibiting employees from wearing union buttons while permitting them to wear political or commercial buttons Local 1105 argues, in addition that the Respondent designed the button rule to discourage the Union's collective bargaining stance The Respondent takes the position that the rule is privileged It points out that a significant element of its customer appeal program is the neat, uniform appearance of selling employees, and that it has a longstanding policy that only company approved emblems may be worn at work The Respondent also emphasizes that at times it has permitted em ployees to wear buttons which further company in terests such as the 'recycling button and buttons promoting the sale of certain products, but it con siders the 'Equity in 83 button to be a nontradi tional union button that violates the apparel policy and amounts to unprotected economic warfare" against the Company on the selling floor D Discussion Under the protection of Section 7 of the Act, employees may wear union buttons or other em blems at work to demonstrate union adherence 2 This employee right is balanced against an employ er s right to operate its business and an employer may restrict the wearing of union emblems for con siderations such as production, discipline, or cus tomer relations In this case, we conclude that the Respondent's restriction of buttons is unlawfully broad because it applies to nonselling as well as selling areas of the stores and applies to employee breaktime as well as time when employees are working Accordingly we find that the rule consti tutes an unreasonable impediment to employee union activity and a violation of Section 8(a)(1) CONCLUSION OF LAW By promulgating, maintaining, and enforcing an overly broad rule that prohibits employees from wearing buttons provided by any union the Re spondent has engaged in unfair labor practices af fecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a)(1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act REMEDY Having found that the Respondent has engaged in certain unfair labor practices we shall order it to cease and desist and to take certain affirmative action designed to effectuate the policies of the Act ORDER The National Labor Relations Board orders that the Respondent, Albertsons, Inc , Seattle, Washing ton its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall 1 Cease and desist from (a) Promulgating, maintaining, and enforcing an overly broad rule that prohibits employees from wearing buttons provided by any union (b) In any like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the ex 2 See Republic Aviation Corp v NLRB 324 U S 793 (1945) ALBERTSONS INC 867 erase of the rights guaranteed them by Section 7 of the Act 2 Take the following affirmative action neces sary to effectuate the policies of the Act (a) Post at its facilities in King and Snohomish Counties, Washington, and Bellingham, Bothell Edmonds Everett, Lynwood, Mountlake Terrace, and Port Angeles, Washington copies of the at tached notice marked Appendix " 3 Copies of the notice, on forms provided by the Regional Direc tor for Region 19, after being signed by the Re spondent's authorized representative shall be posted by the Respondent immediately upon re ceipt and maintained for 60 consecutive days in conspicuous places including all places where no tees to employees are customarily posted Reason able steps shall be taken by the Respondent to ensure that the notices are not altered, defaced, or covered by any other material 3 If this Order is enforced by a Judgment of a United States Court of Appeals the words in the notice reading Posted by Order of the Na tional Labor Relations Board shall read Posted Pursuant to a Judgment of the United States Court of Appeals Enforcing an Order of the Nation al Labor Relations Board (b) Notify the Regional Director in writing within 20 days from the date of this Order what steps the Respondent has taken to comply APPENDIX NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES POSTED BY ORDER OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD An Agency of the United States Government The National Labor Relations Board has found that we violated the National Labor Relations Act and has ordered us to post and abide by this notice WE WILL NOT promulgate maintain, or enforce an overly broad rule that prohibits you from wear ing buttons provided by any union WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce you in the exer cise of the rights guaranteed you by Section 7 of the Act ALBERTSONS, INC i 1