In NLRB v. Royal Plating Polishing Co., Inc., 350 F.2d 191, 196 (3d Cir. 1965), the court characterized a company's decision to close a plant when "faced with the economic necessity of either moving or consolidating the operations of a failing business" as a "management decision which [is] fundamental to the basic direction of a corporate enterprise" and which lies "at the core of entrepreneurial control.
In International Association of Machinists v. Northeast Airlines, 473 F.2d 549 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 845, 93 S.Ct. 48, 34 L.Ed.2d 85 (1972), an examiner for the Civil Aeronautics Board ("CAB") had approved a merger between Northeast and Delta Airlines.
In NLRB v. Rapid Bindery Inc., 293 F.2d at 176, the Second Circuit held that "conjecture or rumor is not an adequate substitute for an employer's formal notice to a union of a vital change in working conditions.
In NLRB v. Adams Dairy, Inc., 350 F.2d 108 (8 Cir. 1965), cert. denied 382 U.S. 1011, 86 S.Ct. 619, 15 L.Ed.2d 526 (1966), we held that in the absence of union animus, a company has no legal duty to bargain with a union over the decision to partially shut down its operations because of economic reasons.
In NLRB v. Island Typographers, Inc., 705 F.2d 44 (2 Cir. 1983), at 50 n. 8, the Second Circuit concluded that a decision to update a plant's technology was within the class of decisions subject to the First National balancing test, but that there was no need to apply the test in light of its conclusion that the union had waived its right to bargain over the decision.