Rebb Energy

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 10, 1991

302 N.L.R.B. 886 (N.L.R.B. 1991)

886
302 NLRB No. 146
DECISIONS OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Rebb Energy, Inc. and United Mine Workers of
America, District 17, Sub-District 3. Case 9–
CA–28073
May 10, 1991
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN STEPHENS AND MEMBERS
CRACRAFT AND RAUDABAUGH
Upon a charge filed by the Union on November 29,
1990, the General Counsel of the National Labor Rela-
tions Board issued a complaint on January 10, 1991,
against the Company, the Respondent, alleging that it
has violated Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National
Labor Relations Act. Although properly served copies
of the charge and complaint, the Company has failed
to file an answer.
On April 1, 1991, the General Counsel filed a Mo-
tion for Summary Judgment. On April 4, 1991, the
Board issued an order transferring the proceeding to
the Board and a Notice to Show Cause why the motion
should not be granted. The Company filed no response.
The allegations in the motion are therefore undisputed.
The National Labor Relations Board has delegated
its authority in this proceeding to a three-member
panel.
Ruling on Motion for Summary Judgment
Section 102.20 of the Board’s Rules and Regulations
provides that the allegations in the complaint shall be
deemed admitted if an answer is not filed within 14
days from service of the complaint, unless good cause
is shown. The complaint states that unless an answer
is filed within 14 days of service, ‘‘all the allegations
in the complaint shall be deemed to be admitted to be
true and shall so be found by the Board.’’ Further, the
undisputed allegations in the Motion for Summary
Judgment disclose that the counsel for the General
Counsel, by letter dated March 14, 1991, notified the
Company that unless an answer was received by
March 27, 1991, a Motion for Summary Judgment
would be filed. In the absence of good cause being
shown for this failure to file a timely answer, we grant
the General Counsel’s Motion for Summary Judgment.
On the entire record, the Board makes the following
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. JURISDICTION
The Company, a corporation with its principal office
in Logan, West Virginia, is engaged in mining coal in
the vicinity of Stirrat, West Virginia. During the past
12-month period, the Respondent, in the course and
conduct of its business operations, sold and shipped
from its Stirrat, West Virginia facility products, goods,
and materials valued in excess of $50,000 directly to
W. P. Coal Company, a nonretail West Virginia enter-
prise which, in turn, annually sells and ships products,
goods, and materials valued in excess of $50,000 from
its West Virginia facility directly to points outside the
State of West Virginia. We find that the Company is
an employer engaged in commerce within the meaning
of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act and that the Union
is a labor organization within the meaning of Section
2(5) of the Act.
II. ALLEGED UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES
The following employees of the Respondent con-
stitute a unit appropriate for collective-bargaining pur-
poses within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All employees of [Respondent] engaged in the
production of coal, including removal of overbur-
den and coal waste, preparation, processing and
cleaning of coal (except by waterway or rail not
owned by [Respondent]), repair and maintenance
work normally performed at the mine site or at a
center shop[s] of [Respondent] and maintenance
of gob piles and mineroads, and work of the type
customarily related to all of the above at the coal
lands, coal producing and coal preparation facili-
ties owned or operated by [Respondent] excluding
all coal inspectors, weigh bosses at mines where
men are paid by the ton, watchmen, clerks, engi-
neering and technical employees and all profes-
sional employees, guards, and supervisors as de-
fined in the Act.
At all times material the Union has been recognized
as the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of
the Respondent’s employees in the unit described
above. Such recognition has been embodied in a col-
lective-bargaining agreement which is effective by its
terms for the period February 1, 1988, to February 1,
1993. The Union continues to be the exclusive rep-
resentative under Section 9(a) of the Act.
Since on or about May 29, 1990, the Respondent
has failed to provide the unit employees with the
health insurance benefits set forth in the above collec-
tive-bargaining agreement. This action was taken with-
out notice to, and without the consent of, the Union.
Accordingly, we find that the Respondent, as speci-
fied in the Conclusions of Law below, has refused to
bargain in good faith with the representative of its em-
ployees in violation of Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the
Act.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
By unilaterally departing from its contractual obliga-
tions with respect to health insurance benefits, the Re-
spondent has refused to bargain in good faith in viola-
tion of Section 8(a)(1) and (5).
887REBB ENERGY
1 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 National Labor Rela-
tions Board’’ shall read ‘‘Posted Pursuant to a Judgment of the United States
Court of Appeals Enforcing an Order of the National Labor Relations Board.’’
REMEDY
Having found that the Respondent has engaged in an
unfair labor practice, we shall order it to cease and de-
sist and to take certain affirmative action designed to
effectuate the policies of the Act.
With respect to the unilateral refusal to provide the
contractually required health insurance benefits, we
shall order the Respondent to restore those benefits and
make its employees whole for any losses resulting
from its failure to provide health insurance coverage
since May 29, 1990, in the manner prescribed in Kraft
Plumbing & Heating, 252 NLRB 891 fn. 2 (1980),
enfd. mem. 661 F.2d 940 (9th Cir. 1981). Interest on
any money due and owing employees shall be com-
puted in the manner prescribed in New Horizons for
the Retarded, 283 NLRB 1173 (1987).
ORDER
The National Labor Relations Board orders that the
Respondent, Rebb Energy, Inc., Logan, West Virginia,
its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall
1. Cease and desist from
(a) Unilaterally discontinuing the health insurance
benefits established in the 1988–1993 collective-bar-
gaining agreement with the Union as the exclusive rep-
resentative of the employees in the following appro-
priate unit:
All employees of [Respondent] engaged in the
production of coal, including removal of overbur-
den and coal waste, preparation, processing and
cleaning of coal (except by waterway or rail not
owned by [Respondent]), repair and maintenance
work normally performed at the mine site or at a
center shop[s] of [Respondent] and maintenance
of gob piles and mineroads, and work of the type
customarily related to all of the above at the coal
lands, coal producing and coal preparation facili-
ties owned or operated by [Respondent] excluding
all coal inspectors, weigh bosses at mines where
men are paid by the ton, watchmen, clerks, engi-
neering and technical employees and all profes-
sional employees, guards, and supervisors as de-
fined in the Act.
(b) In any like or related manner interfering with,
restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of
the rights guaranteed them by Section 7 of the Act.
2. Take the following affirmative action necessary to
effectuate the policies of the Act.
(a) Restore and maintain in effect health insurance
benefits for unit employees protecting them against
medical and hospital costs in the same manner and to
the extent they enjoyed such benefits prior to May 29,
1990.
(b) Make the unit employees whole for any loss of
benefits suffered as a result of the Respondent’s unilat-
eral discontinuation of health insurance coverage, in
the manner set forth in the remedy section of this deci-
sion.
(c) Preserve and, on request, make available to the
Board or its agents for examination and copying, all
payroll records, social security payment records, time-
cards, personnel records and reports, and all other
records necessary to analyze the amount of payments
to employees due under the terms of this Order.
(d) Post at its facility in Stirrat, West Virginia, cop-
ies of the attached notice marked ‘‘Appendix.’’1 Cop-
ies of the notice, on forms provided by the Regional
Director for Region 9, after being signed by the Re-
spondent’s authorized representative, shall be posted
by the Respondent immediately upon receipt and main-
tained for 60 consecutive days in conspicuous places
including all places where notices to employees are
customarily posted. Reasonable steps shall be taken to
ensure that the notices are not altered, defaced, or cov-
ered by any other material.
(e) Notify the Regional Director in writing within 20
days from the date of this Order what steps the Re-
spondent 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 or-
dered us to post and abide by this notice.
WE WILL NOT unilaterally discontinue your health
insurance benefits provided in the collective-bargaining
agreement with United Mine Workers of America, Dis-
trict 17, Sub-District 3.
WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere
with, restrain, or coerce you in the exercise of rights
guaranteed you by Section 7 of the Act.
WE WILL restore and maintain in effect health insur-
ance benefits for you protecting you against medical
and hospital costs in the same manner and to the ex-
tent you enjoyed them prior to May 29, 1990.
WE WILL make you whole for any loss of health in-
surance benefits you may have suffered because of our
failure to abide by the contract since on or about May
29, 1990, plus interest.
REBB ENERGEY, INC.