NLRB Ruling Wipes Out TWC Assertions in Strike Fight, AFL-CIO Says

Time Warner Cable's (TWC) assertion that there was a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union No. 3 at the time of an alleged contractual breach ignores that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) definitively ruled the opposite, the union said in a reply brief (in Pacer) Friday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The union said it doesn't dispute that through most of the arbitration process it also mistakenly believed there was a CBA with TWC, but TWC "is attempting an end run" around the statutory procedure for appealing the NLRB decision. And since TWC never asked for review of the NLRB decision by the appellate court, the court doesn't have jurisdiction to rule on the validity of that decision, the union said. Local 3 said it also isn't clear the arbitrator who awarded damages to TWC had authority to do so given a NLRB decision that no CBA was in place, and it isn't clear how expired contractual terms like a no-strike provision can survive the expiration of a CBA. Local 3 is appealing a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ruling upholding those arbitrator awards, 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 (see 1608300029). TWC, now owned by Charter Communications, didn't comment.