NLRB v. Am. Firestop Solutions, Inc.

NLRB v. Am. Firestop Solutions, Inc.

Opinion

 [*767]  ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a petition with us to enforce its order compelling American Firestop Solutions, Inc., to bargain with the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, Local 74, and to take other remedial action because of its unlawful conduct. See 29 U.S.C. § 160(e). We grant the petition.

AFS is in the business of installing materials in buildings that inhibit fire and contain fires to limited areas of a structure. In 2003, AFS and the Union entered into a collective bargaining agreement, and they entered into additional agreements between 2003 and 2007. From  [**2] 2003 until August, 2009, AFS contributed to the Union's fringe benefit funds and complied with other terms of the parties' arrangements. In mid-2009, AFS gave notice that it would end its relationship with the Union on August 1; the Union objected, asserting that AFS was required to continue to recognize the Union. After August 1, AFS made no further contributions to the Union funds and began to make unilateral changes to its employees' working conditions.

The Union then filed a charge alleging that AFS had engaged in unfair labor practices in violation of subsections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) of the Act, see 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), (a)(5). After a hearing, an administrative law judge held in favor of the Union and ordered AFS, inter alia, to bargain with the Union and pay damages; AFS appealed to the Board, which accepted the ALJ's factual findings and legal conclusions, altering only the remedies that the ALJ had fashioned.

] We must accept the Board's factual findings as "conclusive" if they are "supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole." 29 U.S.C. § 160(e).  [*768]  "Substantial evidence" is evidence that "a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support" a finding.  [**3] Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 477, 71 S. Ct. 456, 95 L. Ed. 456 (1951) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); NLRB v. Whitesell Corp., 638 F.3d 883, 890 (8th Cir. 2011).

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