Welfare and Pension Funds

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 7, 1969

178 N.L.R.B. 14 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

14 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Welfare and Pension Funds and Local 2529 , United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of
America , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case
13-RC- 11808
August 7, 1969
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND ZAGORIA
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Howard I. Malkin, Hearing
Officer. The Petitioner filed a brief.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations
Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel.
The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer. At the
hearing the Employer raised the question whether
the Petitioner has the capacity to represent the
employees in question because of a possible conflict
of interest. We have carefully considered this
question and have come to the conclusion that there
is a conflict of interest sufficient to preclude the
Petitioner from representing the Employer's
employees for the following reasons:
The Employer is an unincorporated association
administering employer and employer-union trust
funds in Illinois and Iowa. Each fund has a separate
board of trustees, those established by
collective-bargaining agreements having equal
representation by local unions and employers. The
Employer's chief administrative employee, Walker,
is responsible to an administrative committee of 5
trustees of the Carpenters Welfare Fund of Illinois.
This fund, and the Carpenters Pension Fund of
Illinois, were established and are administered for
the benefit of the members of various of the
Petitioner's sister locals, and are responsible for
about 80 percent of the Employer's receipts and 50
to 60 percent of its costs.
The Petitioner is a "semi-beneficial" local
recently chartered by the Carpenters Union for the
purpose of representing the employees of the
Employer . The record indicates that the Petitioner,
as a semi-beneficial local, is not required to submit
any collective agreement which it might negotiate to
the parent Carpenters Union for approval . Further,
the Petitioner does not qualify for strike benefits
from the parent . However , the record additionally
shows that although not required , the Petitioner
may join a Carpenters ' State or District Council;
may obtain a professional negotiator without cost
from the parent upon request, and is considered to
be a subordinate body under the parent's
constitution and bylaws . The parent ' s constitution,
in turn , provides in section 6D that:
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America shall have the right to
establish supervision over and to conduct the
affairs of any subordinate body (including the
removal of any or all officers of such subordinate
body ) to correct financial irregularities or to
assure the performance of collective bargaining
agreements and the responsibility of the
subordinate body as a bargaining agent or to
protect the interests and rights of the members or
whenever the affairs of the subordinate body are
conducted in such a manner as to be detrimental
to the welfare of the members and to the best
interests of the United Brotherhood. . . .
(Emphasis supplied.)
In these circumstances , we believe that the
Petitioner is not competent to bargain concerning
the terms and conditions of employment which
would govern the Employer ' s employees. As the
Board has stated in previous cases, "a union must
approach the bargaining table with the
single-minded purpose of protecting and advancing
the interests of the employees who have selected it
as their bargaining agent and there must be no
ulterior purpose."' Thus, where, as here, a union has
direct and immediate allegiances which can fairly be
said to conflict with its function of protecting and
advancing the interests of the employees it
represents, it cannot be a proper representative.'
Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition herein.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition in this case
be, and hereby is, dismissed.
'Oregon Teamsters' Security Plan Office, 119 NLRB 207, 211-212; see
also Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, 108 NLRB 1555, 1559.
'See General Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of
America , Local 249, affiliated with International Brotherhood of
Teamsters , Chauffeurs. Warehousemen and Helpers of America, and
Office and Clerical Employees, Local 72, affiliated with International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of
America , Petitioner , 139 NLRB 605.
178 NLRB No. 3