IMRA fighting pro-union regs - International Mass Retail Association

Discount Store News, June 17, 1991 by Ken Rankin

IMRA Fighting Pro-Union Regs

WASHINGTON - Discount industry leaders are urging the Supreme Court to shoot down controversial federal rules granting union organizers access to retail store facilities.

The focus of the industry's concern: a three-year-old National Labor Relations Board policy under which discounters and other retailers may be required to allow labor organizers to recruit union members on store property.

According to officials at the International Mass Retail Association, the ground rules adopted by NLRB have created "a skew in favor of union access" to retail facilities.

In a "friend of the court" brief filed in cooperation with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, IMRA called for a ruling that would make it possible for retailers to keep union activists off of company property unless the union has no other means of contacting store employees.

The case, Lechmere vs. NLRB, was prompted by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to organize store employees at the Lechmere Shopping Plaza in Newington, Conn.

When the shopping center operators sought to prevent organizers from recruiting members on the company's premises, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with NLRB. Although the Board acknowledged that the union was able to contact employers without trespassing on company property, it nevertheless held that Lechmere must permit labor organizers to solicit on the center's parking lot.

That NLRB ruling was subsequently upheld by a federal appeals panel and is now under final review by the Supreme Court.

In asking the high court to require a shift in NLRB policy, IMRA cited legal precedents under which retailers are required to grant access to labor activists only if the union is able to demonstrate that no "less intrusive" organizing techniques are available.