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First National Maintenance Corp. V. National Labor Relations Board: Eliminating Bargaining For Low-Wage Service Workers, Alan Hyde

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court decision finds an employer privileged not to bargain with the union over a decision to eliminate a portion of operations (by not renewing a contract with a particular customer), undertaken entirely for economic reasons turning not at all on labor costs, and without animus to the union. No such case has ever been presented to the National Labor Relations Board, and interviews with the principals reveals that these were not the facts of First National Maintenance either. The case was a carefully-constructed hypothetical that omitted key facts, such as the employer's history of illegal conduct to avoid …