TWC Contesting NLRB Ask to Put Union Work Stoppage Appeal on Hold

The National Labor Relations Board likely won't address whether a union was bound to a no-strike agreement at the time of its 2014 work stoppage, so putting legal proceedings on that on hold is delayed justice, Time Warner Cable said in a brief (in Pacer) filed Monday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief was in opposition to an NLRB motion (in Pacer) filed last week to stay briefings and further proceedings on the appeal until the agency issues a final decision on a related unfair labor practice complaint before it. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union No. 3 is appealing a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn's ruling upholding of an arbitrator's award of damages to TWC after the work stoppage, and the company is cross-appealing the portion of the Brooklyn court's judgment that denied confirmation of part of a 2015 final arbitration award ordering the union to refrain from further violations of the no-strike prohibition. The NLRB, in its motion, said such a stay wouldn't impede TWC's ability to collect the money damages of the judgment if it's affirmed, and "the clarifying effects of a Board determination" would help the union and cable operator better evaluate their litigation positions and aid the court in assessing the merits of both sides' appeals. A stay "would also avoid needlessly preempting the Board’s deliberative process in the pending unfair labor practice case," NLRB said. TWC said "whatever the Board may (or may not say) about that issue at some unknown time in the future is of no 'significant value' to this Court, and the NLRB’s speculative and legally baseless assertions to the contrary provide no legitimate basis for this Court to stay its proceedings." If the NLRB rules on whether the union and TWC had a no-strike agreement, it will be based on precedents and legal standards different from those material to the appeal, the company said. It's now part of Charter Communications.