EMPLOYER DOMINATION OR ASSISTANCE; DEFENSES – In General

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Benign or malevolent intent is irrelevant to remedying employer domination. (Redwoods Community College District (1987) PERB Decision No. 650, adopting proposed decision at p. 61(Redwoods) [“Section 3543.5(d) unqualifiedly forbids unlawful support, interference and the kinds of actions taken by the [employer] which otherwise tend to influence employee choice, be they benevolent or malevolent”].) Legally, intent is irrelevant to domination violations. And compliance with the law after a rival nonexclusive representative announced its organizing campaign would not have erased decades of entrenched favoritism and the resulting severely tilted playing field. As the NLRB noted in Electromation, Inc. (1992) 309 NLRB 990, disestablishment is proper “even if a concededly employer-dominated organization were altered to remove the elements of unlawful domination,” because removing such ongoing illegality does not transform the organization into a lawful one. (Id. at pp. 995-996, fn. 24, citing National Labor Relations Bd. v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. (1939) 308 U.S. 241.) The Board determined that to secure free choice in the District for the first time since EERA’s passage almost five decades ago, it must break the ties between the District and the Senate. (Redwoods, supra, PERB Decision No. 650, adopting proposed decision at pp. 63-64.) (pp. 60-62.)